Chevy Wants to Rev Our Engines

This ad for the Chevrolet Volt ran in Between The Lines, Michigan’s LGBT newspaper, and it’s Chevy’s first ad aimed at little old us, LGBT consumers.

So writes Richard Read online at The Car Connection, noting that Chevy got savvy in pitching us its electric car.  For one thing, LGBT consumers tend to be among the first to buy new products.  Also, we’re considered more eco-friendly than the rest of humanity.

“But perhaps most importantly,” says Read, “Chevrolet has managed to find an interesting parallel between one of its ‘outsider’ products and a population that, in some ways, still resides on the margins of society. That's not just clever, but it makes for good advertising . . . This ad strikes an interesting balance between flat-out niche marketing and brand-alignment.”

All this makes me feel like I’ve been unknowingly involved in the world’s biggest focus group.

As it happens, I own an electric car—the Nissan Leaf.  Nissan’s advertising, gay or straight, didn’t get to me.  My eco-friendly partner told me about the car, my eco-friendly gay genes kicked in, and that was that.