, a mysterious full-page ad announcing the return of GM’s Pontiac brand has people arguing and debating. Is it a real ad, or a joke byor someone else who paid for the ad space? If it’s real, is it a deniable trial balloon GM is using to see what people think of the idea? The below video gets into the details of the advertisement, but I’ll write more below it with a quick summary and some of my ideas.
But, what has many people saying it’s a joke is the fine print at the bottom: “DISCLAIMER: Do you need to be told that this advertisement is fake and not to be taken seriously? Our lawyers think you do.” There’s also the fact that GM doesn’t make a 372 V8 anymore, and hasn’t in quite some time. A slightly de-bored or de-stroked 6.2L V8 could be a 372, or they could just call a 6.2L V8 a 372 for marketing purposes, though. So, who knows? Maybe it’s real and GM’s people decided to make it totally stupid so they could deny it was them if the idea got rejected.
First, it keeps the other brands that are headed to Electric Avenue from having to sell ICE and hybrid models and keep their names associated with that. This allows those other brands to make a clean break from ICE and hybrid while giving the other brands a chance to build a more futuristic image.