GM sticking with robot suicide ad

Suicide prevention group calls on automaker to pull ad showing fired robot jumping off bridge, but GM defends Super Bowl spot.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A suicide prevention group is calling on General Motors to pull an ad which shows an assembly line robot throwing itself off a bridge after making a mistake, but the automaker is sticking with the spot.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention issued a statement saying that the ad sends dangerous and insensitive messages, and it asked members of the public to write to the automaker and ask that the ad be pulled.

A suicide prevention group is calling on GM to pull its ad that shows an assembly line robot throwing itself off a bridge after being fired for a mistake, but GM is stick with the spot.
A suicide prevention group is calling on GM to pull its ad that shows an assembly line robot throwing itself off a bridge after being fired for a mistake, but GM is stick with the spot.
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"The ad, in its carelessness, portrays suicide as a viable option when someone fails or loses their job," said the group's statement. "Research has also shown that graphic, sensationalized or romanticized descriptions of suicide deaths in any medium can contribute to suicide contagion, popularly referred to as 'copycat' suicides."

GM (Charts) spokeswoman Ryndee Carney said the automaker has no plans to change or pull the spot, which she said conveys that GM employees are making the best vehicles in its history.

"Our robot ad is a story of GM's commitment to quality," she said. "That was the predominant impression by previewers of the ad. It is not intended to offend anyone. Advertising during the Super Bowl brings instant critiques, both positive and negative."

The 60-second ad, which cost the automaker about $5 million to show during the game, shows a cute robot being fired after dropping a screw it was suppose to be installing on a car on a GM assembly line.

The robot is shown forced to take a number of menial jobs, including holding a speaker at a fast-food drive through, and becoming upset enough to throw itself off a bridge.

But as the robot hits the water, the ad then cuts back to show the robot still on the job at GM, and that the suicide was only a fantasy. An announcer then explains everyone at GM is now obsessed with the quality of the GM products and talks about vehicles' 100,000-mile warranty.

GM continued to feature the ad prominently on its own Web site, and on other Web sites, including CNN.com Thursday. While it has not yet run on television since the Super Bowl, it is set to air during the Grammy's on Sunday, which like the Super Bowl, will be broadcast on CBS.

The ad was generally popular with viewers of the Super Bowl. An online poll by Spotbowl.com, which asked viewers to rate the various ads, ranked the GM Robot ad as the fourth-most popular, with an average score of 2.93, just behind the No. 1 ad on the site, a Blockbuster (Charts) ad that had an average score of 2.98.

Another Super Bowl ad ranking by Adbowl.com ranked the GM robot ad as No. 9.

The more traditional car and truck ads by GM competitors such as DaimlerChrysler (Charts), Toyota Motor (Charts) and Honda Motor (Charts), which aired during the Super Bowl, did not rank nearly as well on the Spotbowl ranking, nor did the other GM ads. The best ranked of the other car or truck ads was No. 13 for the Toyota Tundra's "see-saw" commercial, which showed off the company's new pickup towing and breaking capabilities. An ad for the Chrysler Aspen was one of the least popular ads on the ranking, finishing No. 58 out of 61 ads.

Brewer Anheuser-Busch (Charts) had the most of the most popular ads in the two surveys, with four of the top 10 on Spotbowl's survey, and six of the top ten on Adbowl. But critics generally gave bad reviews to this year's selection of advertisements.

Earlier this week, candy bar Snickers pulled an ad criticized as homophobic that showed two auto mechanics becoming upset after accidentally kissing while both eating the same Snickers' bar.

Masterfoods USA, the subsidiary of closely held Mars Inc. that makes Snickers, issued a statement apologizing for the ad.

"We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent," Masterfoods said in a statement.

But the Snickers ad was far less popular with viewers than the GM ad, ranking No. 25 on the Spotbowl ranking.

Some ad critics suggested that GM's robot ad was insensitive and a bad idea for a company that offered buyouts and retirement packages to get about 35,000 factory workers to leave the company in the last year in an effort to stem losses.

Dave Regan, a Michigan State University advertising instructor, told the Detroit News that the ad in poor taste given the job upheaval at GM and other automakers.

"When you saw those visuals, you had to question the people on the team," Regan said.

A spokesman for the United Auto Workers, which represented the workers who have left GM as well as those still on the job, said the union had no comment on the ad.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.