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Friday, April 08, 2005

GM Strikes Back

From the Wall Street Journal:


In response to a series of articles about the auto maker, General Motors Corp. has pulled all of its advertising from Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times for the foreseeable future, GM said yesterday.

At the heart of the issue are some factual errors and misrepresentations in the editorial coverage, said Ryndee Carney, a GM spokeswoman. It's not just one story. It's a series of things that have happened over time, and we've made our objections known to the paper, and so we'd like to keep our discussions between us and the paper private. Ms. Carney added, As a general policy, we don't do this. It's very, very rare.

...

One media buyer said the amount would likely be in excess of $10 million annually. The auto maker spent about $2.8 billion on media time and space for advertising in 2004, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Good.

The LA Times has a right to publish anything it wants--but GM is not obligated to pay for word of it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am 100% behind GM in this....they don't need the LA Times and should spend their $$ were ever they want....these auto writers get off on sensationalism. Maybe they should take the same tact with some of the auto mags that bash them and think that everything Asian is perfect. I've owned a Lexus and now a Caddy....the Caddy is much better!!!

The Angry Engineer said...

I support GM's right to spend their advertising dollars where they wish. I think that while Dan Neil's 4/6/05 story was largely factual, it was also more of an attempt at entertainment and less of an effort at honest journalism - a line that Car & Driver walks much more effectively.

I also don't see how this in any way fixes their current problems.

I'm eagerly awaiting someone to give me one good reason why I would want to buy a G6 over an Accord. Don't mistake me for a GM basher - if I were to buy a high-end luxury sedan or a $50K sports car, I'd be looking at a Caddy or Corvette. And I'll probably be a GMC truck fan for as long as that brand exists. But they don't offer much that's both interesting and affordable right now, and thus my passenger-car needs will probably be filled elsewhere.