Reality Copywriting: General Motors Strikes Back

Ecolumn - Monday, February 26, 2007

General Motors Strikes Back

I hope you're ready for a good laugh….

I have an example here of a press release from General Motors that went viral. Not only did it get featured in newspapers across Canada and the US -- but people liked it so much they started passing it around via email.

That meant General Motors received a lot of publicity for FREE.

You can use this same idea to market your own products or that of your clients. IF YOU THINK THIS IS TOTALLY UNRELATED to the industry you work, then I must strongly disagree. If you were to put together a press release like this, you could easily get local or national media to use it and cite your business and website. (Note: General Motors did not include any way to collect emails or contact information in this press release -- bad move).

The other great thing about this press release was that it was in response to a bit of bad publicity General Motors received from Bill Gates. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX) Microsoft's Founder reportedly said…

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued the following press release...

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash... Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a

new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would

have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the

car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For

some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your

car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to

reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,

five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five

percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be

replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation"

warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask: "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and

refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned

the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how

to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the

same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

One of the best places to see examples of press release copy and other tactics for getting free publicity for you or your clients is Dan Kennedy's No B.S. Marketing Inner Circle. You can give it a free 3-month test drive (plus receive over $793 worth of free gifts) at...

www.nobsfreegift.com/jerrymcgill

Capture, captivate, convert!

John C. A. Manley

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