A few months ago, Chevrolet launched a contest where budding filmmakers could submit their ideas for the carmaker’s “Route 66” ad campaign. The winning advertisement would be shown during the upcoming Super Bowl.
The finalists can be viewed here. But this entrant, which actually takes place on Route 66, didn’t make the cut.
As you can see, Dan Rice of 66-to-Cali was the star of the clip, along with other roadies.
The filmmaker, Ian Eyre, was a little peeved his work didn’t advance to the final round:
We were initially excited by the title of the contest “Chevrolet Route 66 Super Bowl Competition” and the statements that “We want to celebrate the everyday heroic acts of our customers. They are optimistic, fun-loving, hardworking, reliable people who do the heroic every day.” Dan told me the true story of how all of the lemons that Joann bakes into Ugly Crust Pies at Fran’s MidPoint Cafe come from the lemon tree in his front yard, and he often finds someone who is driving east to take her his lemons. I thought this was an upbeat, authentic story that should be told, would be appreciated by Route 66 enthusiasts, and met the stated desires of the contest, so we enlisted the help of Kumar Patel at Wigwam Motel, Crocodile Lile, Fran at MidPoint, Nick and Demi Adam at Ariston Cafe and Dale Butel, owner of Route 66 Tours out of Australia. […]
Dan and I think it is regretful that “Chevy Route 66” doesn’t really seem to incorporate the Route 66 part of things or the “true Chevy story” they said they were looking for. We are disappointed that like so many other brands that proclaim they want to help promote Route 66 (K-Mart’s “Route66” brand, and the Route 66 Casino in New Mexico come to mind), Chevy has also fallen in with not doing their homework or properly representing the Mother Road, and yet are still doing all they can to profit from it.
Eyre also said the criteria for the contest was “a bit misleading.” I found the original rules for the video. You be the judge of the key passages:
Write a script for an iconic 30 second film which captures the unique spirit of the original Route 66 and Chevrolet.
The script for your film should be an epic road trip story or adventure that captures the spirit of Route 66 and Chevrolet!
I think there’s wiggle room there, especially when you’re talking about the “spirit” of Route 66. But it does seem odd the ad most explicitly about the Mother Road didn’t make it.
UPDATE: This is the entrant that won the contest, announced today:
Great clip. I met Dan and Fran this summer on our Route 66 trip. I would have been happy to delivery some lemons if I had only known. Possibly Chevy didn’t want to be associated with “lemons” and that is why it didn’t make the cut.
Yes, we are all disappointed. This would have exposed the largest audience in the world to Route 66, the fantastic people on it, and even given them a 30 second trip across it. To Ed’s point, if people actually watch the clip, they’ll hear in the last line if narration that “If you’re TIRED of driving lemons, DRIVE A CHEVY.” About the only other thing we could have done is “If you’re tired of driving lemons and like brakes on your car, don’t drive a Toyota…drive a Chevy,” but it’s a bit wordy. I believe most people are clever enough to have gotten the message, and that’s backed up by the response the ad has gotten. In this case, the people in their marketing department simply missed the boat, and are now considering fictional entries that don’t show 66, and don’t feature anyone on it. About our best chance of them realizing their error is if enough people view OUR entry and then POST or SHARE it on their social media sites. It could go viral if enough 66 fans do that, and if that happens THEN 66 will get it’s recognition. Thanks for the assist on this Ron! We are grateful…
Anytime that a multi-million dollar company (especially one that has never been actively or publically involved with supporting Route 66) asks folks to do their filming for free and requests them to send in their completed filming projects with no strings attached, even if it is a contest, is certainly a redlight signal to heed.
On the up side, the contest itself generated some brand recognition for Route 66 through the use of the name, and if this video goes viral, it will have served both the company and the road — not to mention Fran, Dan, and Kumar, who are all already benefiting from the fact that it’s appeared on Route66news.com, which basically constitutes free, highly targeted advertising. To my way of thinking, anytime a multimillion-dollar company asks folks to compete for a chance to use that company’s enormous advertising budget to promote Route 66, it is certainly a green light on a road with no speed limit, regardless of the possibility that some clueless P.R. flack might fail to do his/her homework.
We agree with you Emily. If the video goes viral, we will still have succeeded with our goal, Route 66 News included, in promoting our biggest star, Route 66. As you see in Chevy’s chosen Route 66 contest winner, which no doubt IS entertaining, it fails to actually promote ANYTHING on Route 66, has no “true Chevy story” like they’d asked, and arguably even missed the “spirit of Route 66.” I mean, do you come away from it feeling any more connected to the history, knowledge, or feeling of a Route 66 roadtrip from it? Unfortunately for us, because Chevy may not actually understand Route 66, which is entirely possible, none of us are benefitting because this is the slow time of year, few have seen the commercial, and while dollars are scarce in California now, they’re completely non-existent for Fran who still has to completely close in winter until Spring for lack of traffic. The way we look at it, if the video somehow happens to go viral before the summer travel season, or Chevy realizes their oversight which would completely redeem them, the road and the iconic landmarks along it will still gain the audience they deserve and the attention we all know they need. If that happens, our humble little Route 66 News will be the star of this story for having the insight that the million dollar marketing folks at Chevy just didn’t have. That’d be a great capper to this story: “Route 66 rescues Route 66! Once again.” We’d love for Ron to have that feather in his cap because in my opinion, he is one of the best friends and most tireless advocates the roaf has ever had. It’d be nice to see him recognized in that way. We’ll see what happens…stay tuned!