10431: Delayed WTF 19—Is Ewanick A Dick…?

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

There has been a fair amount of coverage for the dismissal of former General Motors Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick. A deeper and more thorough official investigation may be warranted, especially given the allegations of improper expenditures by a corporation that benefited from a federal bailout in recent years. But that’s a topic for another post.

The majority of sources have already touched on the obvious obscenities in the scenario. For example, it’s a tad hypocritical for a U.S. automaker to invest so heavily in a promotional tactic abroad. Yet many journalistic entities seem oblivious to the extra disturbing elements.

Ewanick has been heralded as a breakthrough executive who operates far beyond the status quo. His actions at General Motors, however, paint a different picture that can be summed up in three areas:

1. Ego. Ewanick displays serious delusions of Grand Prix. Has any other CMO spent as much time providing quotes and interviews to the advertising trade press? Why, Ewanick has even denied his own statements to reporters. The man appears to think he’s a rock star. Um, Jay-Z is a rock star. J-E is a narcissistic, glorified car salesman.

2. Cronyism. Ewanick has shifted entire accounts without formal reviews, essentially handing work to old pals. Under his watch, an assignment went to Mother New York, an agency employing the wife of GM CFO Dan Ammann. This was a clear violation of SEC rules, and GM had to answer to the federal agency on the matter, admitting proper procedures were not followed.

3. Old School. Don’t believe the hype about Ewanick being a groundbreaking revolutionary. Sure, he shook things up by dumping Facebook and punting the Super Bowl. But it’s likely the man simply doesn’t know what to do with social media, as traditional advertising people tend to be digitally clueless. And on the sports front, all he really did was replace football with fútbol. In the end, the Manchester United maneuver is an old-fashioned celebrity endorsement deal. Nothing new here.

Sorry, the man is a typical corporate car guy who perpetuated the bullshit at General Motors. Ewanick is no maverick. He’s a dick.

8442: Another Bizarre Report About GM.

Advertising Age reported that General Motors launched a global review of its ad agencies abroad and planned to consolidate assignments; plus, the trade publication even indicated much of the information for the story came from GM Global CMO Joel Ewanick. But check out the update at the end of the piece. The automaker declared, “Contrary to reports in Advertising Age, General Motors is not conducting a review of its global advertising agencies and has no plans to consolidate global agencies.”

Hmmm.

Despite emerging from bankruptcy, seemingly turning itself around and celebrating a 23 percent sales increase in January, the automaker still needs help coordinating its press coverage.

Remember when General Motors insisted it wouldn’t dump its U.S. minority agencies in 2007, but did anyways? Then in 2010, another GM marketing VP admitted she planned to dump minority agencies in favor of White agencies—until GM decided to dump the marketing VP instead. Now Ad Age says GM told them of plans to review and consolidate agencies abroad, yet the automaker insists such actions will not happen.

OK, but MultiCultClassics encourages all of General Motors’ non-White global agencies to watch their backs.

GM Opens Global Review With Eye Toward Consolidation

Process Could Take Year to Complete; Ewanick Says North American Agency Lineup Is Stable

By Rupal Parekh

*This story has been updated to reflect a statement GM sent Ad Age after publication denying a global review of its advertising agencies is taking place.

NEW YORK -- General Motors has kicked off a review of its global agency partners, with an eye at consolidating the automaker’s relationships with advertising agencies outside of the U.S., GM’s Joel Ewanick told Ad Age.

GM ranks as the fourth largest advertiser in the world, with $3.27 billion in measured media spending; about one-third of that figure comes from outside the U.S., according to Ad Age’s DataCenter.

The review will largely concentrate on streamlining the partners handling ad duties around the world for GM’s biggest brand, Chevrolet, which is marketed in 130 countries and sold an estimated 4.3 million vehicles globally last year. But agency relationships for other brands under the GM umbrella could be examined too. The process is in the early stages and is expected to take nearly a year to complete, Mr. Ewanick told Ad Age while on a whirlwind press tour in New York along with Chris Perry, who took over Mr. Ewanick’s former role as U.S. VP-marketing at GM.

The duo, who worked together at Hyundai, are in the Big Apple promoting GM’s plans for the Super Bowl this coming weekend, in which the car company will have an inescapable presence thanks to a total of eight 30-second spots positioned around the event.

Three major advertising holding companies and a handful of global agency networks work with GM around the world. Among them are: Interpublic Group of Cos.’ McCann, DraftFCB and Lowe; Publicis Groupe’s Publicis and Leo Burnett; and WPP’s Y&R.

One agency that could stand to benefit from the process? McCann in Brazil, which is churning out work for Chevrolet that Mr. Ewanick said he’s particularly proud of and is confident could translate easily into other markets. One goal of the review process, the marketer said, is to concentrate work with agencies that going forward could lead worldwide launches of products for GM rather than launching new cars on a regional basis.

The move comes shortly after Mr. Ewanick, 50, was promoted to global chief marketing officer having clocked just about nine months at the Detroit-based auto giant. He’s already largely finished putting his stamp on the automaker’s North American roster of ad shops.

After landing at GM last May, he made a flurry of agency changes—notably, without conducting reviews—that resulted in Omnicom Group’s Goodby Silverstein & Partners becoming the lead creative agency for Chevrolet in North America and Publicis Groupe’s Fallon taking on lead creative duties for the Cadillac brand. Mr. Ewanick said he believes the relationships with his current North American lineup is stable.

After publication, GM contacted Ad Age with this statement: “Contrary to reports in Advertising Age, General Motors is not conducting a review of its global advertising agencies and has no plans to consolidate global agencies. GM is always looking for ways to collaborate and coordinate among our global partners, but we are not conducting a review process and there are no plans for global consolidation.”