As I’ve said before, I don’t catch too many TV commercials. So forgive me if I’m a little behind the curve on this one.

Tonight I saw a Pontiac G6 commercial that ended with a Google screenshot and a (Matt Dillon?) voice-over: “But don’t take our word for it. Google Pontiac and discover for yourself.”

Immediately following that commercial was a GMC spot recommending I visit kbb.com to find out how well their “professional grade” vehicles stood up to the competition.

I don’t know if it’s pride or desperation that has GM highlighting ostensibly neutral third parties (hey, beats “wee” trucks that drive underwater) but I welcome it. As usual, though, they could use a little help on the execution.

Because while the Blue Book site might be self-explanatory, I’m really mystified as to what we’re supposed to get out of a Google search for “pontiac”. When I did it, I got the following results:

• Pontiac.com
• Pages about Pontiac, MI and their Silverdome
• A page about the “Pontiac Grille” in Philly
• Several pages about classic Pontiacs
• An ABC review of the Torrent, which Google excerpted thusly: “Hitting the market with little fanfare, the Pontiac Torrent is versatile and functional — but its interior is less than luxurious.”

That, plus there was also a sponsored link for “Pontiac vs. Mazda: MX5NoComparison.com.” (Maybe that’s Ford’s payback for the Kermit thing.)

So what does GM expect me to discover from these results? That at least the old cars have a big following? That ABC doesn’t know what they’re talking about? Or maybe just that I should have clicked through to the second page of results…

P.S. Stay tuned for Pontiac’s next ad: “Don’t take our word for it. Google Fight and see for yourself…

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 4:46 am and is filed under Business.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.