de autos cars

California is considering a digital license plate. Yes, digital. Stop for four seconds or more and the letters and numbers disappear, replaced by....advertising (and Amber Alerts).

The revenues (higher plate fees, plus ad dollars) would supposedly help the Golden State dig out of its financial hole.  The full story from KABC-TV.

When you create an award-winning ad, the impulse is to go back and do it again. Which usually works about as well as your typical Hollywood sequel. Transformers 2, say.

But this? Hit. Massive home run hit. It begins airing tomorrow (Friday, May 28). But you can start burning it into your brain now.

And if you want to indulge your inner hamster, you could start by dressing like them. Go here.

Though this does kinda explain that "kittens" minivan spot for the Dodge Caravan...

The above image is page one of a four-page ad that ran in People magazine last fall to promote the GMC Terrain SUV.

Well, as Rolling Stone once famously said about Jim Morrison of The Doors,


But in Einstein's case "dead" doesn't mean "he can't sue us from beyond the grave". For while Einstein didn't will his body to science (there's dispute whether his brain was preserved against his wishes) and was cremated, Einstein did leave his publicity rights to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is suing GM for the unauthorized use of Einstein's image.

General Motors...even the new, smaller, GM, should have a legal staff that knows (or at least can learn) this stuff. The only upside for them? The university is going easy on them. The suit is for $75,000...a little less than two loaded GMC Terrains.

I'd have kittens if I were a Dodge exec and the ad agency brought me this.  Yeah, I know they're swimming upstream with Toyota's "Swagger Wagon" spot for the Sienna:



And even, for that matter, the "punch dub" spot VW managed to whip up for its really-a-dodge-caravan Routan:




But dear Lord....some spots just shouldn't get past the storyboard stage...and sorry, Dodge...you've got one right now.

GM's ditched its logo from the flanks of its cars and from its advertising. And though you'd have to be of a certain age to recall,  it was once associated with a slogan: "GM. Mark of Excellence".




Well, now Cadillac has put distance between itself and GM in its advertising, yet somehow comes up with a tag line that's derivative of the "Mark of Excellence".



Which begs the question: When spending $40-50K for a midsize luxury sport sedan, do you want "leadership" or "excellence"?  My take: Excellence, thank you very much. And Cadillac's old positioner "Standard of the World" strikes me as promising more of what they need to build if they intend to actually play in BMW, Audi and Mercedes' ballgame.

Oh...and there's this: A big hat tip to Peter DeLorenzo at Autoextremist, who points out that the new Cadillac ads are from the same agency that did this Jaguar spot. See if you can spot the similarities.

On second thought, try to find some differences. It'll take less time.