Under the Blue Arch

As I was watching TV on Hulu.com I came across a very interesting advertisement campaign for Chevrolet dealerships titled “Under the Blue Arch” referring to a blue arch that is part of the dealer ship. This ad campaign sparked my interest because it focuses mainly on the dealers that are working at the dealership rather than the actual cars.

In these Chevy commercials they use a blatant office type parody about the funny shenanigans of the staff. In fact, one of the first videos in the YouTube web series make reference to The Office, with the manager saying, after a Nerf “pre-work teamwork building exercise” fire fight, that there should be a TV show made about them. The rest of the team nodes and agrees with the manager basically sucking up, while one employee speaks up “I think they already have a lot of shows like that. I watch them on Thursday.” He is dismissed by his coworkers being told that he needs to be a team player. There is no mention of the cars being sold other than showing them as the staff plays around them as part of their “teambuilding exercise.”

Some of the other commercials are like this. It barely registers as a commercial and more like a quick sketch show. They do work information on the cars into most the commercial but it’s only a small piece like it is Truck Month and not going into detail about it.

This campaign caught my eye because of the tactics these advertisements are trying to sell cars with. Now it is not just about the product, it’s more about the people. But is this correct? Does focusing on the people the right way to sell these cars? Yes and no I say. Yes because times are tough in America, buying an American car means you are supporting you buds at the local Chevy dealer as well as the workers at the plant where it was made. That is honestly the first impression I got from this advertisement. That I would be helping out the cool funny people. On the other had it completely distracts from the purpose of buying a quality vehicle. The cars are not really fulfilling any need like products in other advertisements. They act more like props or set pieces used for exposition and are secondary to the actors. I think it confuses the point. But it does make for some fun and light hearted entertainment. They even have their own jingle that introduces each character.

In the end it is still clever and still did its job of marketing the company. It sparked my interest enough to check out the YouTube page Under the Blue Arch. Now I am aware that it is in fact Truck Month, and about some of the features that Chevy cars have to offer. And knowing is half the battle in anything Right?