Hello and thanks for coming over to this blog post today. I post every day at 1pm central about all sorts of things. Today’s entry is about a series of ads from car manufacturer Buick. The message couldn’t be more culturally relevant. Take a look (more accurately, a “listen”) to this ad…
I know YouTube comments aren’t an official poll, but when the majority of viewers call you out on the irony of your commercials, it deserves a second glance.
The first ad I saw from Buick in their “See Her Greatness” campaign was on Instagram. Unlike the ad above, they actually included video of the amazing buzzer-beater 3-point shot. But to illustrate their point, they VERY ironically didn’t show the shot! Here’s a screen grab of the ad.
The block out the screen to drive home the point that most people didn’t see the women’s basketball game and, therefore, missed seeing the amazing play to win the game. The biggest problem, though? BUICK HAD A CHANCE TO SHOW VIEWERS THE PLAY, BUT THEY DIDN’T! Buick scolds Americans for not paying attention to women’s sports, while simultaneously not showing us why we SHOULD watch women’s sports.
On the other hand, it’s effective in that folks are talking about it. But, to steal a line from “The Bachelor” (which is a failing show, here’s why), I’m not sure people are talking about it “for the right reasons.”
Final Thoughts. I keep coming back to the 90s hit from Alanis Morissette. Buick has a mess on their hands, or at the very least, they have a lot of work ahead just responding to and explaining why they presented their message the way they did. If you want us to see her greatness, you paid for the ad space, so SHOW US HER GREATNESS! Till then, this campaign is 100% like rain on your wedding day.
Out of the Wilderness 
My other issue with this campaign is, and maybe they are, but, unless Buick is putting a bunch of ad money to get more women’s NCAA events on higher profile times and networks, then what is their point? The reason why “nobody” saw these are because viewership for women’s sports is significantly lower than men’s sports, and thusly advertisers aren’t putting ad money into broadcasts.
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I may do a follow up post after researching what else Buick is doing but you’re not wrong about women’s sports viewership, in general. The ad from Buick comes across as patronizing towards women, but I guess we should hope Buick is doing more than just what sounds good. Thanks for the comment!!
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Yep… and unless they are doing some major spending to get womens sports better spots, not sure what the point is.
Women’s BK tournament gets good coverage really…. the softball tournament gets a lot of games on ESPN2.
Then the commercial talks about a swimmer … great, except that nobody cares about Mens NCAA swimming either really. So, that issue is the sport just isn’t popular to watch outside of Olympics patriotic pumped coverage, not that women are being watched less in college swimming.
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Low demand, that’s what it comes down to. It just is what it is, as they say!
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