Six-time Emmy-winning editor and Plug-In America member Jeff U’Ren got frustrated with GM’s Chevrolet Volt commercials and decided to make his own. He told GTM why.
“People don’t necessarily dish out $30,000 or $40,000 just to be green. Not in today’s economy."
“Sometimes electric car enthusiasts and environmentalists think how great the world would be if everybody drove zero-emissions or low-emissions cars and we didn’t rely on foreign oil and people didn’t get sick from air pollution and kids didn’t have asthma."
“But if these cars are going to reach mass adoption, the manufacturers have to sell them. What I have found with the Volt is that it’s very fun to drive."
“The first time I drove an electric car, I went, ‘Wow!' It has a lot of torque. It’s a little speedster. It has that fun thing. Plus, the driving experience is completely unique compared to a gas car that goes through herky-jerky shifts and has vibration and noise."
“When the original commercials for the Volt came out, they were geeky, high-tech things. After the Superbowl commercial, I thought, ‘OK, if I’m in the market for a car, what did I just see? I didn’t see a car driving. I didn’t see anybody talking about a car.'"
“And there was one about a guy stopping at a gas station to go to the bathroom and people asking why he stopped because he has an electric car. That didn’t tell me anything about the car and why I should get it.
“Another one was a nice emotional corporate ID spot. But nothing about the car."
“Finally, through the grapevine, we hear they are going to make owner-testimonial commercials. That’s great, because I’m on the Chevy Volt owners' Facebook page and all the 413 members talk about is how the car is fun to plug in and fun to drive."
“Then the commercials came out and in the testimonials, you never saw the car driving, you never saw people smiling and driving the car and they didn’t talk about the plug at all, which is the number one attribute of the plug-in electric car."
“I was really, really disappointed in those ads because they are not going to sell the car. So I made the video. It’s like ‘Where’s the beef?’ but this is like ‘Where’s the plug?’ and ‘If you can’t plug your car in, you can’t have as much fun as I do."
“Nobody uses the p-l-u-g word in all of the Chevy Volt marketing, and that’s what the electric car is all about. Plug it in at home. Plug it in at work."
“GM says they don’t know how to make a commercial that shows a Chevy Volt is fun. I say to them, ‘Wow. Think Camaro. Think Corvette.’”