GM says it won’t buy advertising time during the upcoming Super Bowl LVIII, set to take place Sunday, February 11th, 2024. General Motors previously purchased ad time during the competitive and popular Super Bowl time slot for the last four years. The change in direction arrives amid a change in marketing leadership at General Motors, as well as a general shift in attitudes among consumers regarding electric vehicles.
According to a recent report from Ad Age, a GM spokesperson confirmed that the automaker would not purchase advertising during the 2024 Super Bowl.
“We continually evaluate our media strategies to ensure they align with our business priorities,” the spokesperson said.
General Motors appointed former CVS CMO Norm de Greve as chief marketing officer over the summer, replacing former CMO Deborah Wahl, who left in March. Wahl previously served as CMO at General Motors in 2020, at which time the automaker elected to run its first Super Bowl ads since 2017. The General ran additional Super Bowl ads in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The ads promoted GM’s latest all-electric vehicles, with celebrity appearances from the likes of LeBron James, Will Ferrell, Mike Meyers, and others.
Part of GM’s pullback from spending on new Super Bowl advertisements may be down to a shift in consumer attitudes towards EVs, with more and more consumers now citing high prices as a roadblock to purchasing a new all-electric vehicle. A recent poll indicated that an EV purchase is unlikely for most American car buyers, with roughly 30 percent of poll respondents indicating that they are unlikely to buy an all-electric model or hybrid model as their next vehicle. That said, EV sales climbed to 7.9 percent of all vehicle purchases during Q3 2023, increasing from 6.1 percent during Q3 of 2022. General Motors has stated that it aims to out “everyone in an EV,” offering a variety of options across multiple price points.
It should also be mentioned that General Motors is now recovering from the six-week UAW strike, estimated to have cost GM, Ford, and Stellantis roughly $2.9 billion.
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Comments
Not surprised. IHMO…America isn’t that excited with the majority of what they’re offering (electric vehicles and 4 Cyl engines).
No issue with the 4 cylinder engines. Everyone is doing, from BMW to Mercedes on up. Drive a new turbo 4 and you might be surprised.
Also turbo engines are becoming very reliable. In the Terrain forum there is a user with a 2019 Terrain 1.5t with over 200k miles. Only issue they are having is a slight oil leak. The person does delivery service is why the mileage is so high.
EV’s will be like motorcycles for the next 10 years, they will co-exisst with the ICE models. If we have change at President everything will be turned around especially since people are starting to see the global warming/climate change is a money grab.
No knock on the 4 cylinders. My college car had a 2.2 ecotech. Phenomenal engine! I’m all for more of those, and it helps that these 4 cylinders are cheaper than the 3.6 high feature.
My complaint was that the 4.3 was never massaged to be used in the traverse or impala, or better yet, supercharged for an modern cyclone. Why couldn’t we get an LS 454??? Or 5th gen 454 or why didn’t they put the LT5 in more cars like the Escalade V, or better yet, why didn’t they do that 5 years ago?
Joe, I agree with your 4 cylinder comment. I had a BMW 4 series, 2.0 turbo. It was very quick, but also very fuel efficient on the highway.
Agree, 4 cylinders are fine for front drive cars, I’ve had many from the Iron Duke 2.5 In a Fiero and a Celebrity to the 2.4 in my G-6 to my wife’s 19 Nox with the turbo 4. All have been very good on gas and had plenty of power. My only complaint was with the Saturn SC1 4 cylinder, it ran fin but drank oil, a quart in less than 1000 miles! However, I draw the line with full-sized trucks, I’m not ready for that yet.
What?!? GM won’t waste money on advertising for cars that aren’t available this year??
Weird to point out EVs when GM isn’t going to advertise ICE vehicles either during the Superbowl.
Maybe they just don’t think this is money well spent right now.
They are imitating Tesla who doesn’t advertise.
They’re saving all their advertising bucks for the Asian Games because they’re in Hangzhou, China this year.
Come on! You know that’s not true. Why are you making thinks up like that? Everyone knows that their entire advertising budget is going to the Home Shopping Channel.
Except for a very few commercials, super bowl is almost never worth it. Bud light had those frog commercials and Doritos has had some winners. But then we had the FTX commercials and we know how that turned out. SB just does not give the return for their price. I’d throw the money at local news commercials instead. We all know tesla spends 0 on advertising (and PR) and that seems to work out. Although perhaps with the latest X stuff a few bucks towards a handler for musk might be well spent.
Not to mention the NFL and other major league sports have turned off a portion of their former core audience with their political positions the last several years. Plus “traditional” network television viewing in general is rapidly declining.
Not exactly a bad idea when they could use those marketing dollars more wisely elsewhere and can get more bang for their buck.
That said, I find it odd the article is citing reduced interest in EVs as the reason. Wouldn’t that signal to GM that they should do more marketing of their ICE vehicles to remind the consumer they are still relevant.
Not only is this article quite misleading, but it’s bait for the anit-ev people to jump on and say see. But let’s look at some real life numbers. EV sales are up, not down. People are pushing back on these over-priced EV’s, yes. But just because GM and Ford thought it was the “smart” thing to produce massively high priced EV’s instead of working more on the lower priced to middle of the road EV’s doesn’t mean the EV market is dead. So this article and the many other online articles trying to paint a picture of EV doom and gloom is silly at best. To me at this point, GM and Ford are no better or different from Toyota. And that is really sad.
So go ahead GM and Ford. Scale back your plans. Lower your forecasts and fall back into bed with big oil. And while you’re doing that, Tesla and BYD and Kia/Hyundai will be eating your lunches. And in 5 to 10 years when GM/Ford have fallen well behind in the EV market and they are sitting on piles of ICE vehicles (mostly trucks and SUV’s), I will not care. Unfortunately, our government will once again bail GM out for more bad decisions.
Oil is still the greatest energy source known to date.
Toyota’s ammonia engine is doing to dominate. So will hydrogen.
😂
hydrogen for passenger cars is a fools dream.
You think gas is expensive?
I think GM more concerned with China market these days . Scary thought as we the American tax payer have bailed them out . They are not doing well selling EVs to us . They’re isn’t anything to get excited about GM products right now . No affordable trucks ,. Nothing in the sedan segment. Cancelation of the last “muscle car. Not good .
What!? An automaker paying more attention to the world’s largest car market than a distant second place market only 1/2 the size and shrinking?
I’m shocked! How dare they!
How about showcasing the Malibu and trax so that group who keeps going to Hundai/Toyota/Honda realize that Chevy is not the car your uncle drove to college. Don’t even spend big, just showcase for a moment to those who don’t know.
Steve: Amen to that. Now that’s common sense that GM doesn’t seem to have one shilling of these days.
Would have been the perfect time to introduce the C8 Corvette ZR1 to the world in all it’s upcoming glory!!!!!!!!!!! Trouble is GM has no one with any thinking experience left so it “SEEMS” ??????????????
GM has a marketing group?
GM is not dialing back because of EV’s, they are dialing back to raise their stock price through cutting costs. It is all that Mary and the board care about. Norm is not a marketing or brand guy, just a henchman to cut marketing, not brand building. The board is chasing the Tesla dream of limited marketing and word of mouth to sell vehicles. A fool’s errand.
In connection to the above comments, yes Hyundai, Kia and others are going to eat GM’s lunch on EV’s like they are doing in the with their ICE vehicles, like Toyota did decades ago. GM is ceding California and the rest of the smile states by not being there with marketing – No GMC and Buick at the LA Auto Show – Why? Massive market and America’s most forgettable brands not present – hard to evaluate and cross shop to the masses if you are not present. Speaking with my press colleagues were are confused at best. Lastly, who watches commercials or advertising? And Social Media for GM… Come on, GM brands are not passion brands and no one follows them, compare them to the other brands in regard to followers. Back to basics. Start there GM.
Advertising works. They should spend more not less.
When you stop and realize how fast the EV tech changes you should only lease an EV. Buying it with a 72 month loan you will be lucky the parts will be available to repair it in 6 years. gm doesn’t want you to lease anything (look at the programs that are out now, residual and money factor are nuts!) They do not want them back at lease end, dealers will send them to auction, and gm will keep losing their ass on these things.
They forgot to tell us the EV batteries only last seven years,same as the loan payments. Getting to be more like appliances we buy now.
Given they have 8 year warranties does that matter?
No point in advertising the bland crap the government is forcing you to build with overpaid union labor.
No one is forcing them. They’re doing this on their own.