Wednesday, April 16, 2003

GM apologizes for "freaks and weirdos ride the bus" ads The President of the Canadian Urban Transport Asoociation wrote a letter to the President of GM Canada, protesting GM's ads that characterized public-transit riders as freaks and weirdoes who smelled bad. GM Canada's Director of PR apologized. We deeply regret that this ad ran and we apologize if some individuals have been offended by its content. The ad has been pulled from circulation and will not be run in any other publication. Link to letter from CUTA president (20k PDF), Link to letter from GM Canada Director of PR (84k PDF) Discuss (Thanks, Grant!) [Boing Boing] The Director of PR job must really suck sometimes, if it can only re-act to the fumbling activities of the marketing department. I'd be very curious to see the creative brief that crystalized into this ad campaign! 10:17:12 AM