While Super Bowl commercials are generally fun and entertaining, they can also mean serious business. A Chevrolet ad that ran yesterday during the big game took aim at Ford’s F-Series pickups, a move that Ford took seriously enough to take legal action against General Motors and NBC.
The entire controversy stems from an ad (shown below) that suggests when the world ends in 2012 according to the Mayan predictions, those driving the Chevrolet Silverado will be the only survivors due to the trucks’ superior safety and durability. The ad takes things a step further at the very end when a quip is made about how a truck owner didn’t survive because he was driving a Ford.
(More after video)
Ford’s legal team claims that the spot wasn’t accurate, according to a handful of letters and e-mails obtained by Jalopink. The letters from Ford’s legal counsel to both GM and the network airing the ad, NBC, specifically take issue with the R.L. Polk data cited, which Ford claims doesn’t actually imply that the Chevrolet Silverado the most “durable” truck on the road.
Ford representative Mike Levine argues that Polk’s data shows that there are more Ford trucks on the road beyond 250,000 miles than any other. Furthermore, Ford also points out in its letter to NBC that the 2012 Ford F-150 also lays claim to a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, while the Silverado “received less than impressive results in IIHS side impact, rear crash and rollover tests.”
Arguing that the ad is inaccurate, Ford asked NBC and GM to pull the ad before it ran during the Super Bowl. Neither party felt so inclined to oblige Ford’s request. In fact, GM’s head of global marketing, Joel Ewanick, went a step further and offered up a bit of additional satire surrounding the ad, “We stand by our claims in the commercial, that the Silverado is the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickup on the road.
“We can wait until the world ends, and if we need to, we will apologize. In the meantime, people who are really worried about the Mayan calender coming true should buy a Silverado right way.”
Ford’s legal team didn’t find Ewanick’s tongue in cheek humor quite so funny. Instead, it offered legal precedent as to why the ad should be pulled, “By specifically calling out Ford in its commercial, Chevrolet creates the disparaging impression that Ford owners are at risk because their pickup trucks are less safe and less durable than Chevrolet’s pickups. It is black letter advertising law that “expressly or implicitly disparaging claims can damage a product’s market share and, therefore, such claims [must be] truthful, accurate and narrowly drawn.” See The Procter & Gamble Co. (Swiffer Dusters), NAD Case #4226 (9/14/04). As noted above, Chevrolet’s claims are neither truthful nor accurate.”
What’s next? It isn’t clear if Ford will take further legal action, but GM seems to be holding its ground.
