Yesterday’s Automotive News contained a full-page, long-copy ad for GM, pleading its case for a bailout.
“While we’re still the U.S. sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you,” the ad said. “At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs became lackluster.”
The unsigned open letter, entitled “GM’s Commitment to the American People” ran in the trade journal Automotive News, which is widely read by industry executives, lobbyists and other insiders.
In the ad, GM admits to other strategic missteps analysts and critics have said hastened its recent decline.
“We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on the core U.S. market,” the ad said. “We also biased our product mix toward pick-up trucks and SUVs.”
You can download the ad in PDF form here.
While it’s a start, an ad in a trade pub isn’t going to help GM fix its problems. Real action needs to be taken to get consumers thinking positively about GM–at the dealer level, too.
