Ad Review: Chevy’s hilariously bad Real People ads

Chevy’s “Real People” commercials have been around for years, but I’ve been fortunate enough to dodge them—at least until last Tuesday when I found myself a captive audience in a crowded movie theater. With no mute button and no way out, I had no choice but to sit, watch, and listen to one of the cringiest and most eye-rollingest ads in rotation today. 

To the uninitiated, Chevy’s “Real People” campaign focuses on “Real People, Not Actors” as they enter rooms full of Chevys and lose their minds at the sight of the company’s cars, trucks, and SUVs.

This ad, called “Speaks for Itself,” opens with a group of Real People, Not Actors walking down a busy downtown street, apparently toward something amazing.

“What’s going on up here?” asks one.

“Got to see what it is, yeah?” agrees another.

“What IS that?” a woman asks, sounding as if she’s having a close encounter with ETs.

“That’s a Blazer? A Chevy Blazer?”

Five seconds in, my face is contorted like that of a vampire caught in full sunlight.

“Aw, this is dope,” says a man, checking the box of an important demographic.

“This is beautiful.”

“I love the lights.”

“Oh, man, it’s got a mean face on it,” a man chuckles, looking rightfully embarrassed.

Cut to a wide shot of the vehicle and a woman says, “It looks like a piece of candy.”

As I heard this line, a far-off part of my brain wondered if my fellow moviegoers might actually be able to hear my eyes rolling into the back of my head.

“Look at the interior.”

“This is nice.”

“This is my sexy mom car,” says a sexy mom.

Dope Guy from earlier says, “I will feel like a cooler dad.”

“It’s just really chic.”

“Love this.”

“It’s gorgeous.”

“I would pull up in this in a heartbeat.”

“I want one of these.”

As the encounter ends, one man walks backward as he trails the group so he can continue to admire the car. “That is sharp.”

The emcee, a sort of wimpy-looking Everyman, appears and says, “The all-new Chevy Blazer.“ Then, looking over his shoulder at us with a smug yet self-conscious expression, he shrugs and says, “Speaks for itself.”

But the ad isn’t done. Oh, no. Just before the screen fades to black, one of the female voices returns with a line that should carry its own warning label for full-body cringe:

“I don’t know who they got to design this, but give them a cookie and a star.”

A cookie and a star.

A cookie . . . And a star.

A COOKIE.

And a STAR.

Folks, I shit you not.

It sounds made up, but it isn’t. Go ahead and click the video if you don’t believe me.

Are these people for real?

For what it’s worth, it seems that the people in these Chevy commercials really are just regular people.

In 2017, The A.V. Club published an interview with a man in one of the ads who was willing to share his experience under condition of anonymity.

Long story short, Chevy recruits its Real People off the street with the promise of paying them $200 to participate in “market research.” Participants are asked to come to a large building, such as a convention center, where they fill out some paperwork, get fitted with microphones, and wait.

They aren’t told that they are there to film an advertisement, or that the “market research” has anything to do with a specific car brand. They are led into a large room and greeted by a smiling man. An expensive camera on a crane swoops around, recording everything. Then, huge doors in the walls begin to open and Chevy vehicles pour out.

Says the man in the A.V. Club interview:

“When I was talking to people in the lobby, no one seemed that enthusiastic about anything. The second we got in there, it was like magically everyone was the world’s biggest Chevrolet fan. I can’t stress enough that I’m a real person and not an actor. None of these people were actors, because I asked them what they all did for a living. They suddenly became these perfect spokespeople when this guy started asking questions, like, ‘What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you think about Chevy?’ Literally, the guy next to me was like, ‘Freedom.’ [Laughs.] He was suddenly so patriotic. He was like, ‘American-made cars. Quality.’ All of these people were spewing out these buzzwords.”

“Then he took us inside the cars, and they had a camera in every single car as he asked us stuff like, ‘What do you think about the interior of the car? How does it feel? How does the steering wheel feel?’ He said, ‘Cover up the insignia on the front of the car.’ Like, on the steering wheel. There’s a big Chevy symbol right on the steering wheel. He goes, ‘Cover that up for a second’ to the person in the driver’s seat. Then he goes, ‘Now. What kind of car are you inside?’ And this girl next to me goes, ‘You know what? I kind of feel like I’m in a Mercedes.’ [Laughs.] Like, what are these people doing?”

Honestly, I think these people are doing what most of us would do given the circumstances, the pay, and the pressure to be polite to their hosts and other people in the group:

They’re just playing along.

Says Anonymous:

“We never retook a take, but you felt really bad about saying something negative about Chevy because there were 50 cameras on you, and it was just this one guy. He did this magic trick of making it seem like you were hurting his feelings if you said anything bad about Chevy. You didn’t want to see this guy stop smiling. It was really bizarre.”

And that right there is the problem with these ads.

Simply unbelievable

Normally, I love the idea of ads that feature real people. Good, honest customer testimonials are one of the most powerful and effective ways to sell a product.

The problem with these ads is they aren’t believable. The people are real, but their responses are not. And viewers can sense it.

In the end, the entire premise of “Real People, Not Actors” is completely undermined by the contrived setup that elicits unnatural babble from paid participants who must surely feel obliged to say good things about Chevy in front of all the lights and cameras.

You don’t need to be told it’s B.S. This ad speaks for itself.

Cranky Ad Review Score: One star (and a COOKIE!) out of five.

Below: Two of many “Real People” Chevy ad parodies from the guys at Zebra Corner. You can thank me later.

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What do you think of Chevy’s “Real People” car commercials? Share your comments below.