Deutsch's New GM Ad Bears Uncanny Resemblance to a "30 Rock" Joke

Deutsch LA appears to be playing a huge prank on America with its “Reinvention” commercial for General Motors. The spot touts GM’s corporate vision now the company is in bankruptcy, by using generic stock footage of Americana and old GM ads.

The spot bears a striking resemblance to a joke ad for Gavin Volure’s Sunstream corporation in the show 30 Rock (NBC). In that episode, billionaire investor Volure, played by Steve Martin, reveals to NBC chief Jack Donaghy that Sunstream is bankrupt. “You watch our commercials, we never actually say what we did,” Volure says. The commercial looks like this:

Images of a bald eagle in flight, an arrow hitting a bulls eye, tall glass buildings, rapidly moving cityscapes of New York, and a rising sun along with the words innovation, tomorrow, America, and Sunstream.

Like Sunstream, GM’s “Reinvention” is rife with subtext. Here’s BNET’s translation, so next time you see it you can understand what it really means. (You might as well — your tax dollars paid for it.)

The ad opens with a shot of dawn over … New York’s Central Park. Why not Detroit? Because everyone hates Detroit right now.

Voiceover: Let’s be completely honest: No company wants to go through this.

“Completely honest”? The company took $20 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy and then went bankrupt. We’re past the “honesty” part.

But we’re not witnessing the end of the American car; we’re witnessing the rebirth of the American car.

To quote Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night, “nothing says ‘rebirth of the American car’ like people taking the subway and a one-legged man who would rather run.”

General Motors needs to start over in order to get stronger.

Despite the fact that it was obvious to everyone else for at least the last five years that GM was a completely unsustainable, we finally figured it out too.

There was a time when eight different brands made sense. Not anymore.

We sucked at marketing.

There was a time when our cost structure could compete worldwide. Not anymore.

Unions destroyed this company. (Note the visual at this point is squarely on the face of an autoworker.)

Reinvention is the only way we can fix this, and fix it we will.

This is accompanied by a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge. For some reason, Deutsch believes folks in the Midwest, South and West really relate to this New York stuff. Only an LA based agency would think that.

So here’s what the new GM is going to be. Fewer, stronger brands. Fewer, stronger models. Greater efficieny. Better fuel economy. And new technologies. Leaner, greener, faster, smarter.

Shots include solar panels and windmills. Really, GM? Your previous idea of a “greener” vehicle was the GMC Yukon Hybrid — a vehicle so massive it got only 21 miles per gallon. That’s the same efficiency as the Ford Model T of 1908, by the way.

This is not about going out of business; this is about getting down to business. Because the only chapter we’re focused on is chapter one.

“Getting down to business”? You’re only doing this now? God help you. The Chapter 11 pun is complete nonsense — if GM wants to turn the page to chapter 1 it does, in fact, have to emerge properly restructured from Chapter 11. Focusing on Chapter 11 would probably be a good idea.

Below: Jon Stewart’s take on the ad.