2007's Chevy Superbowl College Ad Contest Winner

While a couple cool million could've easily aided the hundreds left homeless by tornadoes-- this nation's tragedy of the week; instead they went to Superbowl advertising! Yeah!

Even then, the marketing firms know how to cut corners. This year, Chevy sponsored a nationwide Superbowl ad contest. The assignment: write an ad script for a Chevy vehicle, create a storyboard, and register. How many people/teams went through all this trouble? Approximately 800. Yes, 800.

So, it's no surprise that the commercial absolutely stunk. You can view it here < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIQm6TG5qPE > Coincidently, the winner-- a 19-year-old girl-- just happened to be in the same class as I was at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. For both her and my sake, it's obvious that the university is not doing its job properly.

This is easily one of the worst commercials in history. Not only does it combine all of the atrocious bullcrap that arises from chauvenistic, exploitational mindsets (a Paris Hilton carwash draws obvious parallels here), but it actually attempts to MAKE IT NEW.

What a pathetic excuse for corporate innovation; just because it's MEN washing the car... Obviously this is an ad aimed at women, but is it really necessary to give the demographic a bastardized type of revenge for years of awful car commercials aimed at men? Same old crap, different stereotype.

The ad depicts a rainbow gang of women stopped at a stoplight in a big city, driving a chevy. A passing male notices a smudge on the car and, after cleaning it off, is FED A DOLLAR. Okay, sure Paris Hilton is a whore selling burgers, but we don't need to shove a dollar bill in her butt crack to make that apparent to American audiences.

After the money exchange, a number of ill-clad men come to scrub the rest of the car off with their bags.

So, why would Chevy choose to run this ad as their cream? One apparent reason that Chevy chose a 19-year-old as its winner is that it yearns to somehow get in touch with its younger audience. By choosing the winner, who was in fact the youngest entrant, Chevy is sending a distinct message: we need to get in touch with younger demographics. This is the exact reason Chevy comes out with such cheap, crappy compacts (like the $10,000 sticker price Aveo) in the first place.

And money is what it boils down to; the winning commercial couldn't have been cheaper to film. It was simply a matter of blocking off a street corner in New York, hiring a few extras and no-name-one-liner actors, accomplishing a half dozen shots, and the commercial was done for. The best part: pay the writer with an extra Aveo laying around-- worth "$10,000." How's that for prostitution?