Good Morning!

What's that strange whirring sound? Why, it's none other than Harley Earl, spinning in his vault at about 8,000 RPM, that's what! Only got to see the last part of the Emmy Awards last night, but enough to be assaulted with some greasy, fedora-clad shmoo trying to convince me that he was Harley Earl and that he would actually be caught (even dead) within 50 feet of a Buick Rendezvous, much less that he would claim that it would represent his vision of the future! I have not seen these particular ads before, and hope I don't have to see them again. I have posted before about how the Cadillac "Break Through" ad campaign with the spot using the '59 Caddy is dumb, and about how GM seems incapable of appealing to the people who actually remember when they made desireable cars, and how they seem so incredibly inept when mining their own design past (i.e. the new "Impala" has four big ugly round tailights, which to those-who-know means "cheap-ass Biscayne," and all the Buick show cars have rediscovered Ventiports, yet the designers seem not to know that three per side says "cheap-ass Special"), and now these piles of crap advertisements.

The one with all the reporters was especially horrid, in that despite the fact that men used to wear hats, they also had the common sense to take them off INDOORS. Ah, but hats have that certain post-ironic iconography about them, I suppose. Anyway, if Buick really wanted to mine the past, why not skip Earl completely and go for Billy Mitchell, whose sublime '63 Riviera is a certified milestone and really set the tone for the whole Buick line during the '60s and '70s.

I looked around a bit this morning for something to link to, and found this nice rant on the subject here at Autoextremist.com, where this whole campaign is dissected into tiny chunks, and in fact echoes exactly my own 'spinning-in-his-grave comment' about Earl:

Buick, GM, McCann-Erickson Detroit. The new "Spirit Of American Style" advertising campaign for Buick is such a disappointment that we don't know where to begin. First of all, being ex-advertising creatives, it pains us to have to have to be critical of an ad agency that is obviously trying so desperately to "move the needle" and create something - anything - that will: 1. Establish a distinctive presence and image for the Buick brand that will allow it to stand out from the rest of the pack, and 2. Capture some of the magic that once was such a glorious chapter in GM's history and put it to work on behalf of new and future Buick products. We heartily applaud the cojones it took for McCann to get this campaign through the GM system, and we applaud the creative vision to use Harley Earl in the ads, but that's where our praise has to stop. Harley Earl was a giant in this town and a larger-than-life character who literally forged GM's design leadership with his bare hands. Earl not only created the whole art of Design in Detroit and made it an integral part of the automobile business, he was one of the main reasons GM broke away from the pack in the '50s and established itself as the leader of the industry. And, as if to add an exclamation point to his remarkable career, Earl's star pupil Bill Mitchell continued his legacy and kept GM at the front for another 20 years after him (Rant #102). But the key thing to remember about Harley Earl is that although he did some magnificent Buick show cars like the Y-Job and the LeSabre, he was not linked to the Buick brand more so than to any other GM nameplates. Far from it, as a matter of fact. Most historians would argue that he is more famous for the development of the original Corvette than any other GM car. We could get into some executional quibbles of this new campaign too - like the fact that the authentic GM historical footage is far more compelling than any actor playing the Harley Earl role could be (we find the use of the actor to be insulting to the legacy of Earl more than anything else). And why, oh, why do Buick executives insist on stuffing Tiger Woods into a spot where he has no connection to what's going on whatsoever and no business being in the spot at all? Ladies and gentlemen, please get over the fact that you've committed a ton of money to this superstar golfer and feel the need to "use him" for no good reason. Either craft a separate mini-campaign for him or just give it a rest altogether, because what you're doing now just makes you look foolish. And one more thing - the fact that the the sensational LaCrosse Concept is in the glossy print insert that goes with the television - a car that GM couldn't see fit to build - is just one more indication of the total confusion generated by this new campaign. If anything, this new divisional ad campaign for Buick is woefully misguided and a waste of a golden opportunity. It could have been a spectacular corporate image campaign for General Motors and GM design - a "statement" campaign that would feature some of GM's best concept cars of the most recent major auto shows, coupled with hints of some of its visionary production and concept cars to come. It could have been an elegant image campaign that would have provided a wonderful juxtaposition to the frenetic (but highly effective) corporate retail "overdrive" spots that have been dominating the airwaves for almost a year now. But it was not to be. In the end, we're left with one particularly offensive image of this campaign that made our skin crawl: Harley Earl's signature gray fedora is a running ingredient in all of these new Buick ads, and one print ad goes so far as to have it draped on the left front fender of a Rendezvous - as if Harley Earl's legacy had a hand in its design. The Rendezvous? Harley Earl would take one look at that cobbled-up SUV and puke. We have to believe Harley is surely spinning in his grave right about now...

Amen. (Read on down for their take on stupid Saturn, and about GM spending big on ads--as opposed to spending a few hundred extra on content for their vehicles, which would in turn actually go some toward closing the quality gap with every other stinking car on the planet)

Oh, yeah, the Emmy Awards...Conan did very well. Hated Larry King. Glad Band of Brothers won (even though we don't have cable and I've never seen it, it was still great to see that bunch of old fellows in the remote banquet room get some much deserved recognition). So very glad that Brad Pitt shaved and took those stupid beads outta his beard. I HATE RAYMOND! (Not really--I was just saying that to be shocking. I don't necessarily love him, but I like him a lot. Patricia Heaton on the other hand...)

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was spent building our ark. It rained and rained, then came a big ol' cloud and rained some more. 5-7 inches around the Birmingham metro area over the course of about three days.

Big surprise of the weekend was Little Boy's soccer team WON 11-1, and Middle Girl's team LOST 4-0! Both played in the rain, but Son's game was mostly a steady downpour, which they really enjoyed but made it hard on us old farts (of course, some of the spectators where various moms and teenaged sisters who just happened to be wearing tee-shirts, which managed to get wet, so that was kinda okay). They played Moody (a town next door to Trussville, the name of which does not describe the attitude of its fair citizens, who were incredibly upbeat the entire game) who had a large percentage of girls on the team (including a little girl in Jonathan's Sunday school class--"Yes Daddy, I saw her and she pushed be down!"--Ah, young love) but at this age there's not much physical benefit for the guys or handicap for the girls. Son managed to block a ball from the goal and verrrrrry nearly scored a goal. Good show for Boy and team mates.

ON the other hand, Rebecca's team played with so little vim that I thought they were asleep. No attack, no kicking, just sort of a slow stand-about in the rain. They played Mountain Brook, and I so wanted to be able to win, just out of sheer class envy, but it was not to be. I guess they're lucky the Brookies only got 4 points--they took a bunch of shots that we managed to block. Next week maybe they will do a bit better. And maybe it won't come a flood!

Teachers meeting at church that afternoon was very nice. Out of about 20 teachers, I had exactly THREE show up! Of course, I had two back out of teaching for the upcoming quarter who left messages FRIDAY AFTERNOON, so I couldn't very well expect them to be there, now could I? I go back and forth trying to figure if I should keep having these--in the end, I figure I'll keep having them just so people won't have an excuse when they don't know where their material is, or where the glue is, or the code for the copier, or who to call when they are sick. So there! Nyaaah! ::sticks out tongue in mature fashion:: Luckily, our material is pretty well set so really as long as they show up for class on time, there's not much effort involved. Of course, getting them to show up on time...

The rest of Saturday was spent house cleaning, which was no fun. Sunday was the normal stuff, church, lunch, church, supper, kids to bed, Emmys. Which brings us back full circle to where this started. So there!
posted by Terry at 8:30:00 AM