For all its competition, there’s long been a sort of Marquess of Queensberry rules among Detroit automakers about what kind of marketing punches should be thrown. Today, Chevrolet took to the Internets with a set of rule-breaking haymakers for its Silveradopickups targeting Ford’s aluminum-bodied F-150 as wimpy, even unleashing a bear on unsuspecting volunteers to prove its point.
Of the three videos posted online, the most effective features a real, non-CGI grizzly bear and a pair of cages — one made of steel, one of aluminum. The gentlemen subjects get to choose one cage when the bear emerges. Guess which one they run to?
The other two aim a bit higher. One, featuring long-time Chevy truck pitchman Howie Long, purports to put both trucks to a repair crash-test, ramming each in the side with a 1,700-lb. test sled at 9.1 mph. Four pickups from each brand were then sent to dealers for repairs; the aluminum F-150s went to Ford dealers trained to handle such jobs. Chevy’s claimed results: the F-150s cost more to repair ($7,720 vs. $5,965 on average) and while the Silverados were fixed in 18 days, the F-150s took a median of 53 days to fix. (In response to a question from Yahoo, Ford says the body parts themselves cost roughly the same versus the previous steel trucks, and that time to repair should be similar as well.)
Wait, did I say higher? I meant lower. Here’s the third: a focus group of ComicCon-esque fans asked to spitball a new superhero, “Almighty Aluminum Man,” who’s lighter and more efficient, maybe? At least Chevy didn’t paint his suit blue and say his real name was Henry:
Yes, the message is clear: Aluminum was invented by witches to shrink men’s private parts, and belongs nowhere near a real pickup. But there’s always the potential for a bit of backfire with this kind of punch. Some old car hacks might recall the time Chevy used Howie Long to make fun of Ford’s “man step” — the fold-out handle in the tailgate of the F-150. It was a hilarious bit of video, but it turns out that buyers kind of prefer it; Ford upgraded the “man step” in the 2015 trucks, and Chevy now has a step in its rear bumper.
And the Silverado has its own aluminum hood and other pieces, and will need a lightweight strategy in the future to meet fuel economy rules. Should GM engineers decide that an aluminum body is the best way to meet those targets, they’ll have a grizzly debate to hurdle.
Source: Yahoo Autos
