By now, many of you have heard about the Chevy Tahoe's appearance on a recent episode of the Apprentice. As a tie-in to the TV show, we thought it would be cool to give a wider community of folks an opportunity to compete
against one another on the web in a similar format. We proceeded to launch www.chevyapprentice.com.


Contestants are given a variety of images to work with and are given the ability to splice together the visual elements over which they can display their own advertising copy. A contest of this sort doesn't come without risks. As we expected, people who are opposed to SUVs for a variety of reasons quickly discovered that they were also welcome to participate.

Early on we made the decision that if we were to hold this contest, in which we invite anyone to create an ad, in an open forum, that we would be summarily destroyed in the blogosphere if we censored the ads based on
their viewpoint. So, we adopted a position of openness and transparency, and decided that we would welcome the debate. (As an aside, we have been truly disappointed by the number of submissions we had to filter out
because of their vulgar content.) I won't bore you with the details, but the overwhelming majority of the 22,000 submissions thus far have been earnest attempts at creating positive advertisements.

Now that the debate has begun, I'd like to remind everyone of some indisputable facts:

The 2007 Tahoe is capable, refined and responsible. In fact, in the area of responsibility Tahoe outperforms all of the competition (Toyota, Ford, etc.) in fuel economy with 22 mpg on the highway thanks to Active Fuel Management
technology that turns off 4 of 8 cylinders when you don't need them. The Tahoe is also E85 compatible, which means that it can run on ethanol, a renewable fuel source. Which reduces greenhouse gases and our dependency
on foreign oil. The Tahoe has achieved the segment's highest safety ratings and is an excellent vehicle for those with large families.

We at GM are not culturally unaware; we realize that there are people who would never purchase an SUV. That's why we make more vehicles that get over 30 miles-per-gallon than any other manufacturer. That is why Chevy offers vehicles ranging from the Aveo (starting under $10,000, 34mpg) to the Tahoe ($34,000, 22mpg). In short, we make vehicles that serve the needs for customers of all walks of life and we're proud of that.

So, a few media pundits seem to think this social media program was a failure and others seem to revel in the apparent anarchy. We, on the other hand, welcome the opportunity to clarify the facts regarding fuel economy,
vehicles equipped with E85 capability, and consumer choice. In our opinion, this has been one of the most creative and successful promotions we have done. And we invite you back to see the final "Board Room" as we select the winning entry at www.chevyapprentice.com on April 27.

Anyway, it sure got people talking about the Tahoe. Which was the whole idea, after all.





Posted by: Jim    Source