Cadillac Condemns Ad Agency After Seeking Neo-Nazis For Upcoming Advertisement
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File this one under “things we didn’t think we’d ever cover.” It seems communication between Cadillac and its ad agency may have been lost in translation, or someone was bullish on sparking outrage.
A casting call was posted by Cadillac’s ad agency for, and we quote, “Real alt-right thinkers!” between the ages of 20 and 40 of all ethnicities. Yeah. There’s some irony in the “all ethnicities” portion of the casting call.
According to Reuters, the agency was supposedly planning an ad to feature a spectrum of people to profess how much they love their Cadillacs, and, apparently, neo-Nazis were originally included.
The casting call sparked outrage on Twitter and was condemned by many, leading Cadillac to post an official statement denouncing the casting call to its Facebook page:
Cadillac did not authorize or approve a casting notice for an “alt-right (neo-nazi)” role in a commercial. We unequivocally condemn the notice and are seeking immediate answers from our creative agency, production company and any casting companies involved.
The casting agency further defended the advertisement and Cadillac saying, “The notice was drafted by an employee, who was immediately terminated for her actions. Additionally, an outside third party further altered the breakdown without our knowledge and posted it on social media. Cadillac unequivocally did not authorize this notice or anything like it, and we apologize to Cadillac for the ex-employee’s actions.”
The strangest part, which has led many to believe this was not a simple mistake, is the ad’s description.
It details the ad as one to feature “all walks of life in America” and they would be “standing together as a union.” It went on to state “this is not meant to be offensive in any way. Just a representation of all sides.”
It’s unclear if the ad will continue on without the neo-Nazi representation, or if the plot has been scrapped altogether. Certainly, this would have been daring greatly.
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Simple fix: Send out a second casting call for Urbanite, Black-Supremacists and it should all even out. Perhaps some of the Black Panthers seen standing outside of polling stations in 2008 with billy clubs and tire irons will show up.
2!
Count ’em, ready … one, … TWO!
Two mentally deranged Philly citizens being stupid idiots, in your fantastically hyper-intelligent mind which can see-all and know-all when conspiracies abound, you have seen the evidence that these two “panthers” alone got Obama his 69,498,516 votes in 2008.
Socrates himself would defer to your extraordinary sophistication.
Triggered! Settle down Hercules. It was simply a poke at racists everywhere. I don’t care about the color of people’s skin. Ignorance is ignorance. Simmer down. It’ll be ok. BTW, yes they were members of The New Black Panther Party (Google: Minister King Shabazz).
More down votes? LOL! Note to self: Don’t poke fun at hateful racists on GM Authority. Apparently, the members there are rallying behind these hateful degenerates.
If only the downvotes meant anything….
Your original comment wasn’t funny and neither of the follow ups have been either.
Maybe lay off the comedy for a bit and stick to more meaningful and thoughtful discussion.
It wasn’t meant to be funny. “Poking fun” and “attempting comedy” are two different acts. Wow…nevermind.
See the little plural “s” you used in “polling stations”?
THAT WAS A LIE
There were just 2 idiots claiming to be “panthers” at 1, just one single polling station in Philly. You just did a false-flag operation. And seeing as GMAuth is not a huge top-5 digital-media website, therefore this page is in the deep-web
See? You are a false-flag operation in the deep web. Are you Hillary? Seriously, are you?
Maybe they can still sell this ad concept to ford. And any one that buys a ford will recive a free copy of the international Jew written by Henry Ford.
I call them Alt-Rite. I use “Rite” because it means “Ritual”. “Right” alludes to a thought-about political position like Rove and Cheney. Alt-Rite folks hate thought because dumb people think. Alt-Rite people KNOW, they don’t think. Their KNOWledge comes from their gut feeling hunches, not the stupid grey matter in their heads that loony liberals use for bullsht statistics. Rituals are what people do when they have no original thoughts to work on, like nasty people work on such things as engineering and scientific invention. Alt-Rite people worship “Reacting” to new thoughts which upset the carefully obedient rituals. Alt-Rite people are a brilliant, hyper-intelligent, totally socratically sophisticated Reactors. Congratulations on your superior performance/minds, Alt-Ritualists.
Feel bad for the entry-level account exec who lost her job for this – it most certainly was not her sole idea to include “alt right” in the notice.
Its clear to me that this Ad Agency doesn’t have a clue and needs to be fired along with Mr. Ellinghaus, Cadillac CMO, who wouldn’t recognize good advertising if he tripped over it,. The current “Dare Greatly” campaign is the worst in the Industry. Cars driving slowly backwards in the rain and women sitting in a car in the rain simply don’t provide a reason to want the car. If you disagree, take a look at competitive advertising specifically BMW and Mercedes. Their ads are dynamic the cars are driving sliding, avoiding crashes some even show crashes. They provide a reason to buy the car. That’s what advertising is supposed to do. And guess what…those cars are selling while Cadillac collect dust on dealer lots.
The most recent Cadillac tv commercial that I thought was well-done and effective, was the one where a skinny guy (British comedic actor Stephen Merchant) is walking around town thinking he’s getting looks from hot women, not realizing that they are actually focused on the red Cadillac ATS coupe behind him (featuring the song “Come up man”).
Before that, the early second generation SRX ads featuring the song “1901” were pretty good.
And before that, the 2007 ad showing historical Cadillacs, leading up to the XLR convertible, and featuring the song “Punkrocker”, was awesome.
So they’ve had a few decent commercials, not sure if those made a difference in sales. Some overall “branding” ads might be good, but I agree the “Dare Greatly” thing is silly, and seems like a ripoff of Apple’s old “Think Different” campaign.
Ya, some good ones here and there. Pretty inconsistent, though – you seem to know a lot about the music tracks … and going back ten years – how about the fashion show Escalade thing that ran on the Super Bowl?
Anyway, I agree – there’s not much great daring in Daring Greatly. Pretty weak overall.
Actually CC I didn’t know any of those music tracks until they were in the Cadillac commercials, but I think they were very well chosen for those ads, all are modern yet lesser known songs, all work great within the context of the commercial and make you get a positive vibe toward Cadillac. I mentioned them in case anyone wondered which commercial I was referring to or wanted to look them up on the internet.
Yes that Super Bowl Escalade fashion show thing was clever, got people’s attention and showed off Escalade/Cadillac exterior styling in a humorous and classy way.
I don’t know how long Cadillac has used the current ad group, but after this gaffe regarding neo-Nazis or whatever, seems there’s little reason to keep using them. Maybe go back to whomever created that “Roll” ad (the one with the “punkrocker” song) in 2007.
Ya, I remember them using Zeppelin before that ($$$); the rest were interesting and seemed to work. Oh, and they did a Bob Dylan commercial back in the day (with him on camera). Go figure.
Anyway, no big – the music’s usually better than the concepts. Wonder what a Chinese Cadillac commercial looks/sounds like?
Oh yes, the Led Zeppelin “Rock and Roll” song, that was brilliant by Cadillac. Perception means a lot, and that was a great way to connect Cadillac history, baby boomers, rock and roll, modern Cadillacs. They could use more of that.
I’d forgotten about the Bob Dylan ad, but I remember it now. Pretty weird, I don’t know if it was effective, but it did get your attention.
Out of curiousity I did a quick check for Chinese Cadillac commercials, and they actually have one with Brad Pitt driving an XTS. Looks a lot like any US commercial, not bad at all. If they ever used Brad Pitt in a US commercial, it probably wouldn’t be in an XTS. Then again, they show him driving all over the place, including across the Golden Gate Bridge, so maybe he’d have chosen the softer riding XTS over some of the other models.
All of you have no idea what constitutes good marketing. The new CT6 ad is one of the best if not THE best advertisement currently on television, and if you’re comparing to Apple’s think different campaign, then it already is a winner. Nobody does advertising better than Apple, or used to. The CT6 ad is simple, classy and the instrumental beat is something you go and look up what is it. Maybe its an age difference, as I’m pretty young compared to most Cadillac buyers, but I know good marketing when I see it.
It’s exactly what Cadillac needs.
Also, why wouldn’t they have Brad Pitt driving in an XTS? I don’t care what anyone says, or give an F about rear wheel vs front wheel drive, I like the XTS for being a big American cruiser that eats up the miles. The XTS still holds its own and is one of the most distinctive cars on the road and it ushered in many firsts for Cadillac when it was introduced. It’s aged well. Also it looks just darn cool and best at dusk or night time, especially walking toward it with the handles lit and the front super bright vertical LED’s blinding everyone, pretty classy IMO.Every time I see a new or waxed XTS, I picture Sade’s No Ordinary Love, instrumental version playing in my head. I was in one just recently, a newer one, got a thumbs up from a Tesla driver too on the five freeway headed to L.A.
Anyhow, the XTS is still cool, the CT6 is pretty rad too, though.
Yosh, I am totally with you on the XTS. If you’ve seen my posts here before, I love the big roomy Cadillacs with a nice cushy ride (aka “riding on a cloud”, fka “The Cadillac ride”). The Chinese XTS ad with Brad Pitt shows him traveling many miles, and absolutely the XTS would be the sedan of choice for long trips.
But I think the current mentality of Cadillac in the USA is to pretend they are almost exclusively a RWD, “sporty” car company now, and they seem embarrassed by their legacy of large, roomy, plush-riding cars. Current Cadillac management, would like to showcase their ATS-V and CTS-V as being where the brand is headed, not the XTS. It’s a shame, but it is what it is.
But I totally agree, I don’t care about RWD, in fact I prefer FWD in case I encounter snow or slippery conditions. I don’t drive like a maniac so I don’t experience any gain from RWD or from harsh “sports ride” or low profile “performance tires”, etc. If it were up to me, I’d show an ad where some famous football player (perhaps Clay Matthews III) is getting banged up in a game, and then is driving his plush riding Cadillac after the game, so as to not absorb any more shocks than necessary.
It’s interesting to get your view as a younger than average follower of this website. I liked the big, roomy, powerful, modern technology, cool-looking, plush-riding Cadillacs ever since I rode in the front seat (friend’s parents car) as a young teenager. For some reason the professional auto-writers, who care mostly about fast test-track times and not about a nice ride, deride any roomy, nice-riding Cadillac as a “grandpa car” or “floaty boat”. Nice riding Cadillacs (my favorite being the DTS, sadly discontinued after 2011) are not just for older people, IMO, and the marketers should make that point. A lot of people on this forum say that the market has changed, permanently, but I say people are people and a nice ride is a nice ride, unfortunately most younger people have never experienced the true Cadillac ride so they don’t know what they are missing, and they assume all cars have to ride like a stagecoach.
I’m in the camp that says current Cadillac marketing has lost its way, but always good to hear other points of view.
Marketing is more than taglines and thirty second commercials. Here Cadillac was presented with an opportunity to condemn the alt-right, instead they “daringly” condemned a casting notice.
Enough / well said!
Glad they didn’t and they’d better not. Good on Cadillac nipping this in the bud.
As many of you may know, Cadillac has a special relationship with African-Americans. Many of whom still consider Cadillacs luxury items. In fact, Cadillac sold cars to African-Americans when nobody else would, saving the brand the first time, and whether you want to face it or not, rappers and athletes saved Cadillac in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. http://rollingout.com/2013/06/22/don-butler-tells-how-blacks-helped-save-cadillac-from-extinction-during-abff-festival/2/
Letting this go through would almost certainly turn these people over to the German brands, and pandering to the alt-right/neo nazi crowd would yield more diminishing returns. Why would they pick a brand associated with rappers and athletes over pure European brands like Porsche and Volkswagen?
Where is JDN’s cheerleader?
The casting call did not say “neo nazi” – it said alt-right. The problem with alt-right/alt-left is that the definition is in the eye of the beholder.
It has not just been used to refer to white supremacists, but has also been broadened by many to include conservatives that oppose the establishment of the Republican party.
Of course, Reuters did not differentiate between the two. It appears to me that the ad agency clearly was thinking the latter definition, not the former. The former simply does not make sense for an ad agency to request.
What does JDN have to do with this? KKK, white supremacists, etc,etc, ingnorance is ever were on this planet. What do think these us is build on? It’s stronger is it ever been.
Usually, casting doesn’t begin until a marketing dept and an ad agency agree on a concept to produce.
I’ve never seen a casting company take matters into their own hands without the marketer’s and agency’s knowledge.
Maybe they took ‘broad cross-section of today’s America’ too literally, but the whole thing feels a little weird. Normally, a marketer and their agency are aware of casting specs. I’m guessing Cadillac would like the whole thing just go away as quickly as possible.
What you have here is another case of clueless marketing people.
Both my work and my wife’s work like many other places have creative people in marketing but God bless them they too often have no clues about what they are selling or who they are selling to.
To often they Lille knowledge or Too little passion for what they are selling.
The Alt Right term is fairly new to the public used by the far left media in explaining the most recent election.
Many people have little idea of what the label represents.
The term was around but was used much in the mainstream and even the average person on the street may define it different ways.
Today we have so many labels and people just do not always keep up.
Hell many cannot name who the new VP is from let alone who the present one is.
I think Carl nailed it that they used a broad brush in the name of inclusion but they had no idea on the labels they covered.
Alt-right is not an association of neo-Nazis, or white supremacy. Alt-Right is a 5-10 year-old term to describe conservative/sometimes libertarian minded individuals who have no love for traditional Republicans and were actively seeking a “alternative” conservative/right party or affiliation. It had no official, or commonly acknowledged ties with neo-Nazi white supremacy till the Democrat election machine started attempting to alienate as many prospective voters as possible from Trump. I guess their logic was Trump is anti-establishment, and against Republicans so he is alt-right. And since the Alt-right are nationalistic and anti-globalist, by default that makes them racist. So Trump has white supremist, immigrant hating followers, so by default he IS racist too.
Except problem is, Trump was a Populist-Nationalist, running as a Republican against Republicans AND Democrats. He’s not even “alt-right”. Lol, Although they have some philosophical crossover. As much as the media rants about “fake news” these days, they as usual appear oblivious to the fact that they are the biggest purveyors of that bullsh#t.
+1 Very well said.
No one cares about your opinion, only the opinion of the Ad agency. They defined the term in this case and cast neo-nazis. Moreover, someone at Cadillac approved this. Quit trying to project and make excuses.
Good point about alt-right not necessarily being neo-Nazis. I haven’t really been aware of the “alt right” term until recently. But I saw the way the Democrat machine and the mainstream media unfairly trashed the term “Tea Party”, so it doesn’t surprise me that they would use the same playbook to go after “alt right”. I consider myself very pro Tea Party, which to me just means small government, semi-libertarianism, not a vast culture of control and dependency. Somehow the left saw Tea Party as a rising threat to their bloat and control, so they demonized it as “racist” or a “hate group”. Really bizarre, but I guess if you repeat something enough times in the MSM, a lot of people start to believe it.
That being said, I have no idea what Cadillac’s ad team was thinking about when they said they wanted some “alt right” people for the ideas. What do they even look like? Do “alt right” people have identifying fashion or haircuts? Supposedly some of the “alt right” are encouraging people to wear New Balance shoes, for some reason. Maybe Cadillac should show some people in New Balance shoes? That’s crazy. By the way, I wear New Balance shoes myself, not to make a political statement, but because I have a hard-to-fit size (14 B) that only New Balance makes, of the major athletic shoe companies. And I have yet to have someone look at my shoes and tell me “you must be alt right”.
From Wikipedia…
Alt-right is most commonly attributed to Richard B. Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute and founder of Alternative Right.
Spencer was the headline speaker at a 2016 NPI conference held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.; Spencer celebrated the presidential election victory of Donald Trump as “the first step towards identity politics in the United States”, and “the victory of will” (a reference to a Nazi propaganda film). Spencer “railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German”. Spencer finished his speech by yelling “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” as audience members responded by standing up and making the Nazi salute.
NPI is regarded as part of a group of white nationalist organizations which “try to take a more highbrow approach” to white supremacism, “couching white nationalist arguments as academic commentary on black inferiority, the immigration threat to whites and other racial issues.
You do know that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, to say anything it wants (until someone else edits it a different way). Usually reliable, but not always a definitive source. I’m not saying they are wrong on “alt right” definition, just that I don’t know that it’s as precisely defined as being about Spencer and his group. I have heard that “alt right” includes Breitbart, and from what I’ve seen of Breitbart they are not a neo-Nazi website. I don’t regularly read that website, but I have read some articles from it that have popped up via Google searches.
The MSM hates anything that deviates from their own “politically correct liberal” viewpoint, so they tend to demonize everything that is not MSM as racist or neo-Nazi, simply to effectively silence them. Which is interesting considering the original Nazis were known for shouting down and shutting down dissent. I’m not saying that Cadillac should be affiliated with anything neo-Nazi or even political (absolutely they shouldn’t), but I’m not sure you can always accept a Wikipedia definition of something. What exactly “alt right” is seems to be not sharply defined. Except that anything the MSM doesn’t like might fall into that category.
sh1tp0st of the day award.
Congrats.
SLibbey = Nazi post of the day award. Congrats.
Your sh1tp0st has nothing to do with the discussion about the Ad agency wanting neo nazis in the cast. It’s nothing more than whining about MSM and tea bag bs. Stick to the topic.
SLibbey = board Nazi, shouting down opinions he doesn’t want to hear. Sorry that you hate the freedom embraced by the Tea Party, but that’s life. Wear a diaper pin on your clothes and go to your safe zone, you clearly can’t handle or participate in a discussion like an adult.
And clean up your language, clown. Your mom obviously never raised you out of the gutter or allowed you to hear a dissenting opinion. I blame her more than you.
Your political opinion would be relevant if the topic was about politics. In this instance it’s about an ad agency and their casting. If you can’t understand that perhaps you should refrain from verbal diarrhea. Now if you have something on point perhaps we may have discourse. Go to Cadillac’s FB page and look at the emails uploaded by actors which asserts that the casting call was for neo nazis. Now if that makes you uncomfortable and you need a safe zone by all means utilize one. Quit projecting. If not leave the adults to speak on the ad agency’s actions. Tl;dr your post is still a sh1tp0st because you offer no substantive discussion.
SLibbey, my post was entirely on topic, per the thread started by JzEllis, which was on topic with the Cadillac ad agency. I pointed out that the Democrat-leaning MSM unfairly vilified the Tea Party as “racist”, and they may be doing the same thing to “alt right”, I don’t know.
You are a liar when you claim you object to my post because it was “off topic”, the reality is that you didn’t like anyone saying anything positive about the Tea Party, which you vulgarly call “tea bag”. And instead of trying to enter the discussion, you merely tried to throw your feces on my opinion, typical Nazi tactic.
Using the term “sh1tp0st” does not elevate the discussion about Cadillac, it merely shows that you are a vulgar mush-brain who is unable to enter into dialog. It’s obvious that you are unaccustomed to having anyone challenge you to think beyond your liberal safe zone, which is why you act like a child and throw your feces when you see an opinion that is at odds with what you were led to believe. Time for you to grow up, Libbey-boy (or girl, or whatever), the real world is not all that your liberal college profs told you it was. And please wash out your mouth before posting here again, not just for my sake but for everyone’s.
The fact that you postulate in absolutes, liberal or non liberal is myopic at best. It’s amazing you’ve made it this far in life. Kudos to you for accomplishing plebeian mediocrity with so little grey matter. I’m sure your misguided diatribe works well amongst the low level intellects with whom you associate as well as the beast whose womb you fell out of to unleash your unpolished, rough-hewn vitriol. Good for you try hard.
SLIbbey, at least you’ve finally cleaned up your language. Congratulations, that’s the first step toward adulthood. Though you have so many more miles to go, grasshopper. Frankly I doubt you’ll ever make it to adulthood, but for the rest of society I wish you good luck in getting there.
Your concession post, how apropos. At least you realize you’ve been bested. Next time let the adults speak and sit quietly at the kids’ table.
Ha ha Libbey, I concede that you have the mentality of a dim-witted ape. going into a rage and throwing your verbal feces all over this board, when you see a comment that challenges the viewpoint of your safe zone. And then trying to ape my own comments toward you, in a feeble attempt to act like a man.
This message board is about sharing ideas, even where people disagree with each other, not about winning or losing. Try to understand that concept, I realize it’s hard for you.
You actually contributed nothing new with your post. Just a recap of your obtuse views. Now more name calling. I expected more from you but in the end I’m left with the musings of a mental midget. The scary thought is that you can breed, like any common animal, thereby furthering your outdated pointless drivel to a captive audience, your spawn. The mere fact you are unable to understand the article is about Cadillac and their Ad agency’s decision to cast neo nazis in an attempt to normalize them speaks volumes about your lack of worldy experience. Travel more and experience the world instead of trying to trivialize everything by being a simple minded American. Had you remained on task and spoke about the topic or even viewed the screenshots on the Cadillac facebook page perhaps then you might have, however unlikely, something substantive to contribute. In the end, it’s nothing more than your self fulfilling prophecy of making yourself look like the vacuous imbecile you are. I would hope your spawn are embarrassed by your comments/thoughts but I’m sure the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Now kindly go back to your sand box and play.
SLibbey, thanks for revealing that you really are a Nazi, through and through. Even to the point of deciding who should spawn and breed, being sickened by the thought of someone who’s not like yourself propagating. That’s in addition to your trying to disrupt this board from discussion by splattering your verbal feces on it, if the discussion is not going the way you want it to go. And like your fellow Nazis, you think you’ve “bested” someone, merely by beating your chest and declaring yourself a winner, of a contest that only existed in your “mind”.
Obviously anyone who does not think and act the way you do, deserves to be shouted down with your disruptive and vulgar “sh1tp0st” declarations, as far as you’re concerned. You have that right, because you are simply “better”, goes your “thinking”. Well if Cadillac really does want to feature Nazis in their ads, they should absolutely contact you for that role. Well that’s enough time wasted on you.
Your tears are very tasty. Let’s see if you have the verbal acumen to rise above the level of a fifth grader. “Shouted down,” now it’s time for you to stand in the corner and sulk and play the victim. Way to cuck!
All one has to do is look at the casting calls. Too bad no pictures can be posted. It actually says Alt Right (Neo-Nazis).