Anna Kournikova, Carmen Electra, Lindsay Lohan glitz up GM Ten
This week, General Motors hosted its GM Ten, which celebrates GM’s vehicles and concepts by
pairing them with the fashion and entertainment world.
Twenty-two of GM’s hottest vehicles were on
display, many paired with celebrities.
Some of the vehicles and their partners included:
- A Pontiac GTO modified with a 6.3 liter V-8 rated at 500 horsepower, was served by former tennis star Anna Kournikova.
- Actress Carmen Electra heralded the stunning new Pontiac Solstice GXP.
- Cadillac's STS nearly stole the show from 'With the Stars' participant Stacy Keibler (pictured).
- Actress/singer/party grrrl Lindsay Lohan strutted next to the Saturn Sky. Fortunately(?), there was no repeat of the wardrobe malfunction that marked one of Ms. Lohan's earlier appearances within the event.
A full listing of vehicles and some of the attending stars can be found at the link. Proceeds from the GM Ten
benefitted various charities.
[Source: Auto Spectator]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cFoo 4:11PM (3/05/2006)
Putting an exceptionally good looking model beside an ugly product will only make the product uglier. Instead of investing the money to fix the product they make these bone headed marketing decisions. It's no wonder buuh byyyee GM.
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Tom Design 4:46PM (3/05/2006)
CFoo => Putting King Kong next to most Japanese home designs wouldn't make them look better. Only Italian or Californian designed Japanese cars look nice. The Japanese have good product, and are meticulous engineers. However, you can't copy beauty and creativity. Look at the horrible design flowing out of Japan: The Subaru Impreza/Outback and Tribeca, the Toyota everything, the Honda Element, Insight, Ridgeline and Accord, the confusion coming from Nissan. Mazda is holding it's own, due in no small part to it's California design shop. Your comments on Stacy Keibler next to the STS are just biased ranting. Both look spectacular and well designed to an auto enthusiast and design professional. Seems like the big GM poster is blinding your rational thinking and manly instincts.
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hrudu 5:05PM (3/05/2006)
Build smart cars, then you don't need the chicks!
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K 8:37PM (3/05/2006)
Not being a company insider I have no idea how these glitz events are justified by management. Do they think they sell cars? Or keep the automedia in a good mood? Or is it inertia - we have always done it this way?
I'm not joking about the above - I honestly don't know how such decisions are made or analyzed. Any comments from those who have worked in the field?
But I do know a little about costs and it has to be millions per week around the world. And that is a real bottom line reduction since it would vanish immediately if the shows were not done.
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Rene Curry 9:03PM (3/05/2006)
K you are sooo right! I have no insider knowledge either. I cannot figure out how you could throw any kind of numbers out there to justify it. The only thing I can figure is they must have an advertising budget and the group feels they must spend the money or the budget gets reduced. Kind of like our government :')
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Puff Chippy 8:52AM (3/06/2006)
This is some sort of charity thing but I've never heard of it before even though "It's become one of LA's must-attend events of the year." The way GM is hemorrhaging cash these days hopefully this isn't something that actually costs them money.
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Car-la 8:55AM (3/06/2006)
I agree with cFoo and hrudu. They'd better invest the money in the cars than pay some models to advertise for them. At least I have never bought a car because of an advert. I buy my cars based on the impressions I get during a test drive. And unless GM now wants to hire models for all dealerships across the country, they'd better make sure their cars drive well to get my money.
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Richard Warren 9:18AM (3/06/2006)
Hey guys, read the last line!
"Proceeds from the GM Ten benefitted various charities."
GM has done this for years, as a way to raise money for charities, and if you follow what has happened over the years the amount raised has been quite a bit, the celebs donate their money too. GM donated 100,000 from this event.
Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Oscar de la Renta also donated to the cause, the clebs wore their clothes.
You know last year Chevrolet by hosting and providing show cars collected over 1,000,000 to charity.
It does good, it's advertising and the cost of this type of exposure is nothing compared to a regular TV commercial.
How are these decisions made?, just like my company does you choose a charity and an event you feel is worthy and you make the comittment. Ever hear the old story "you get what you give" The cost to a company for this type of event is miniscule when compared to the regular advertising channel and it does good at the same time. I give 1% of our sales to a specific charity every year and sign up every year, in my small company that = about 75,000 a year for that charity. That's my specific one there are others and out total company charity outlay is budgeted at 10.6%
And while it's in fashion to cap on the General at the moment, I'll just point this out: GM at the moment is still the largest auto maker in the world and even if Toyota surpasses that this year, GM is still a veryyyyyyyy close number 2 and Toyota is not secure in that position by any means once it gets there. And if you were going to cut would you cut charity and advertising? OR would you cut the guys at the top that created the finacial mess?
Something else, advertising does work, don't do it and you'll see the results sooner than you think
You guys really need to get out more.
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amp 9:21AM (3/06/2006)
Wow, Eva Longoria is making the rounds at the auto circuit. First the botched intro of the DCX Imperial concept, now this.
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/01/16/detroit-auto-show-wrapup-rare-dcx-press-intro-miscue-as-automak/
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amp 9:27AM (3/06/2006)
On a second note, I don't think this event would have cost GM much money. I think it would have been a drop in the bucket of their advertising budget. Think about it. They already have the cars, the only major expense I see would be the venue, but remember that this is a charity event. Hence, they might have negotiated a cut rate for the venue, and I'm guessing the celebs worked pro bono. Next time why dont you be a bit more thoughtful before you criticize. It's easy for everyone to jump on the me-too-anti-GM bandwagon. Use you heads guys.
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