Earlier this month, Chevy set the world alight with a “must-see” five-minute ad titled “A Holiday to Remember.” Billed as “heartwarming” and “a tear-jerker,” the ad garnered rave reviews from people and publications of every persuasion.
Some even hailed it excitedly as “the first non-woke ad of the Christmas season” — an incorrect assessment due, I suppose, to the ad’s pronounced focus on family and traditional values.
But while everyone on the Internet is calling this ad beautiful and bright, I see it as quite the opposite.
Perhaps what’s most saddening to me is I can’t believe people are still falling for this crap.
But before I say another word, here, have a look for yourself.
Below: Chevy’s five-minute-long, not-a-Christmas Christmas ad, “A Holiday to Remember.”
In case you don’t have five minutes to spare, the storyline centers around a family Christmas gathering and a young woman’s quest to reconnect her grandmother, who is ailing from Alzheimer’s, with her cherished and quickly-fading past.
Senile dementia? Hmmmm.
Who would have thought that a progressive and fatal brain disease would be the next big idea to sell cars?
I was already appalled after seeing the first few shots of grannie’s hopeless, vacant stare, and I literally rolled my eyes at the first strains of John Denver’s folksy 1974 hit, “Sunshine On My Shoulders.”
But by the time this ad served up those small-town Christmas scenes and fuzzy 1950s-era flashbacks, I was pissed.
Feel free to disagree with me, but this is not an honest ad. (As if there ever was such a thing. Ha!)
No, this is a coldly calculated commercial concocted to play (prey) on people’s emotions. To portray Chevy as a benevolent champion of traditional American values. And above all, to get people talking.
And look how many fell for it.
Yes, Chevy has told us a pretty story. But what do you honestly think it means?
I feel like Chevy’s marketing folks looked at the backlash to so many “woke” companies and commercials this year (such as Bud Light with its brand-busting partnership with trans personality Dylan Mulvaney) and decided the time was right to throw a bone to white Christian conservatives.
That in itself would be a cynical and slimy move, but what really gets me is the fact that Chevy would stoop so low as to co-opt such a tragic and painful subject as having a family member with Alzheimer’s as the central idea for an ad.
Frankly, it’s disgusting.
Look, I don’t know how to break this to you, but these companies do not care about you. They are not concerned about your welfare. Their ads are not love letters to you and your family.
If you get some tiny drip of happiness from this type of maudlin and manipulative mind-job, I won’t try to take that away from you.
But nothing about this ad is real. It’s as fake as anything you see on TV, including the so-called “news” — and you would do well to ignore it.
This is not advertising. This is not “creative.” This is syrupy, exploitative garbage that cheapens everything it pretends to celebrate.
Poor old dementia-ridden grandma deserves better, and damn it, so do we.
Cranky Ad Review rating: No stars out of five. I don’t understand how this type of fake, cynical, emotionally-manipulative “advertising” ever became normalized, but I am not going to reward it. And if you think about it for just half a second longer, I think you will realize how sick it is, too.
Merry Christmas, Cranky readers — including and especially Kinchan, who suggested I check out this commercial. I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!
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Cranky readers, I just looked back at my original email reply to Kinchan after she suggested I review this ad. Honestly, it’s too funny not to share.
You will find it below. Remember, I had not seen this ad before I wrote my reply. Am I a prophet or what? 😛
Hi, Kinchan!
While I’ve seen this ad make waves in online discussion boards, I haven’t actually watched it myself.
But, being the crank that I am, I can already make some assumptions, given it is Chevy. One, someone within the company has decided that it would be strategically smart to buck the trend of wild-eyed wokery for two seconds to put out a token ad production which harkens back to more traditional American values. Two, that it is purposefully formulated to pull at heart strings using some unexpected plot device. And three, that it avoids overtly selling cars.
I dunno. I’ll give it a watch. That you took the time to send this to me makes me quite curious: What do YOU think of this ad? Please let me know.
I do know that they snuck a line in there that references the immediate threatening menace of man-made climate change (“It doesn’t snow as much as it used to”) — so again, my suspicion is that this ad is a sendup for “the rest of America” and the company will go back to pandering to the left as soon as the hype from this ad dissipates.
Thanks for sharing and staying in touch.
Rob
Totally agree. Maudlin and syrupy are the words I used to describe this ad. I don’t have a tv, but I watched this online because of the hype. When I feel like someone is trying to manipulate me emotionally, it backfires on them greatly. The same type who lined up for the suicide jabs, are the type who love this commercial. The Elite know this, and play them like a violin.
My Father had Alzheimer’s. It always amazed me how many times he would hear a Sinatra song or an oldie and start singing along. He couldn’t remember much else but he remembered the songs and the lyrics.
I am aware that the ad industry has been taken over by political correctness. Advertising has adopted the techniques of propaganda. That is why I like this website for its critiques. But come on people, it’s an ad and they are trying to sell cars not death camps. Maybe family gatherings that have a senile grandmother front and center rather then in the attic aren’t your cup of tea. But I liked it, knowing all the while it’s propaganda technique, i.e. it is easier to motivate people through feelings then through thought.
Anyone who thinks they are immune to emotional manipulation in media, advertising or politics is only fooling themselves. You might not be a victim of this ad but I guarantee you, you fall victim to others.
The first lesson a good propagandist learns is to tell the lie that the audience wants to hear so it doesn’t feel like they are being manipulated. If they have to use Grandma, puppies or sweet little kids, so be it. Always take the path of least resistance. So what if an advertiser pulls those same strings? You know they are trying to sell you something. No big deal. Get over it. It obviously doesn’t work for you. But something else just as manipulative does, you just don’t know it.
As for the “suicide jabs”, for many years I have volunteered as a pilot and then a driver transporting patients for cancer treatment. I’ve met and had long conversations with many who were literally fighting for their lives. I am a survivor myself. I have learned that a healthcare decision that others make for themselves is their call alone. I might not agree with them but it is not my life. I had six friends die from Covid. Some took the shot, some didn’t. One was killed by the treatment in the ICU. I didn’t need Fauci or Phizer to manipulate me. Reading my friend’s obits did that. But I also knew a guy my age who died because he got the shot. It was a tough call whether to take or not take the shot. I would never put anyone down for making either choice. People die all the time from vaccines, the cover up was the problem for me. The end result has been a total loss of credibility for the CDC, FDA, and the media. A lot more people like myself have become vaccine hesitant across the board.
Thanks, Jerry. I think the point SfF was trying to make is simply that he or she has caught on to the fact that we are all being manipulated, all day, every day, by powerful people and their lackeys in politics, the media, Hollywood, advertising, etc. It’s true, and I suspect that even the most awakened of us can hardly guess at the extent to which we are all being bamboozled.
Having worked in marketing and advertising for more than 30 years, I take particular umbrage with this Chevy ad because it uses tactics that I have always done my best to avoid. Rather than try to surreptitiously manipulate people through emotion, I always strove to educate, inform, persuade and motivate people in an up-front, open and honest way that respected their time, their intelligence, and their pocketbooks. That was always important to me. That so little of today’s advertising reflects this philosophy is perhaps the main reason why I’m so cranky.
My distaste for propaganda and emotional manipulation extends to, and is very much inflamed by, the public health campaign that pushed the shots, a topic I have written about extensively. Search the blog title “Brands have no business” (or click the category “Vaccines”) for a post I updated for more than a year with news and information providing strong evidence that the “Warp Speed” injections were (and are) neither safe nor effective. In my own life, I have been and continue to be personally affected by suffering that I highly suspect is a direct result of the shots, in the form of a growing number of friends, family and acquaintances who have fallen victim to strokes, heart problems, impaired immune systems, turbo cancers and sudden, unexpected death.
A few brave souls have tried to warn us of the dangers of these shots for fully two and a half years, but they were censored, suppressed, canceled. As you say, everyone has the right to choose, but the problem (crime, really) here is that most people have been denied access to the information that would have allowed them to make their best, most informed decisions.
I’m going way off track here, so I’ll just end this reply with a link to a new video from the DarkHorse Podcast that explores the global impact of vaccine deaths and injuries based on a recent study of all-cause mortality presented at the recent COVID Summit in Romania. It’s a good listen for anyone who’s still making decisions based on the information they’ve taken at face value from our government, public health officials, and the media.
Thanks again, Jerry, for your thoughtful and articulate posts!
Those of us who do not watch ads, can not be manipulated. How are they going to intercept our emotions…through the ether? I do not consume advertising.
Thanks, SfF. I affixed your name to your comment above.
No, it was not a hard call to decide not to take the Jonestown jab. For critical thinkers, it was as clear as day what was going on. I had read about this plan on “conspiracy” websites 20 years ago. When I heard the first msm story about a “new virus” coming out of China, on the radio, in DECEMBER of 2019, I knew the long anticipated plan was going down. I didn’t even have internet in my home until 2020. If I could learn about this planned genocide on a library computer, 20 years ago, no one had any excuse to fall for it.
Both my parents, a friend from high school days, a former boyfriend, my sister’s first husband and her best friend have died from the clot shots. They were all dumber than dirt to take it. My dad believed me. He didn’t want it… but he took it to shut up his nagging second wife. What a terrible price to pay to get nagging to cease. NEVER trust anyone else to make decisions for yourself. To say that intelligent folks fall for propaganda easier, is total rubbish. Propaganda works on emotions. Intelligent people use critical thinking to make important decisions…not emotional responses.
Searching:
Your “critically thinking” posts have no shortage of “emotion” in them as well. Is using emotionally loaded language ok for thee but not for me? i.e. “Jonestown Jab”. Isn’t that term designed to manipulate too?
Do you expect anyone to believe that intelligent people can completely divorce themselves from their emotions and biases? There were no Nazi scientists? There are no Marxist professors?
Properly crafted manipulation works on the subconscious level not on the intellectual level. Intellect alone is no defense against it, unless you are that nonexistent person who has no emotions or subconscious at all.
One doesn’t need electronic media to be manipulated. Anyone can be manipulated, through culture, a book, a billboard, a still picture, a movie, a newspaper, even a brief conversation with another person.
It seems that the video that we are all talking about has indeed “manipulated” quite a few people. If you are upset about it … you have been manipulated by it. Remember it is not the action that matters, it is the reaction. It seems those who hate the video have been more effected by it then those who simply like it for it’s Hallmark over-acted sappiness. I don’t know if it will sell any trucks but it sure provoked reactions and got a lot of attention for Chevy without them having to spend a dime for network airtime.
Manipulating heart strings definitely sells Hallmark greeting cards. I doubt it will sell many Chevy trucks.
This silly Chevy ad sure has sparked a lively conversation, hasn’t it? Hehehe. That’s fine, so long as everyone keeps things pleasant and civil, which everyone has.
Speaking of propaganda — my wife and I decided to watch the movie “Casablanca” the other night, as (believe it or not) neither of us had seen it.
Wow! What a letdown. As soon as the movie ended, we looked at each other like, WTF? And I yelled, “war propaganda movie!” That’s exactly what it was, and why it was made.
It served as yet another stark reminder that so much of the world we live in is manufactured to manipulate our emotions and actions. This is why it is so important for each of us to do our best to see our invisible prisons for what they are, so we can break free of the mind control (to the extent it is possible) and live our lives according to at least some semblance of the truth, as close as we can discern it.
Cranky, I felt the same way about Casablanca. I’m very fond of vintage films…they are the only films I watch..but this one was a let-down.
If you have the time, look into how Walt Disney was coerced into making war propaganda. His studio was the only Hollywood studio taken over by our government…no doubt in retribution for his stumping with Lucky Lindy all over the country, for the US to stay out of WWII. He later said that Donald Duck having a tantrum, was the way he felt when he was forced to make those pro-war cartoons.
I’m not upset by the video, I have not cared about what goes on in Normieland for a long time. I watched it because Cranky is one of the few blogs I really like, and I wanted to chime in, as I have in the past (btw Cranky, I tried to comment on your stint as a mail carrier – I was a postal contractor 40 years ago- but your site would not upload my comment).
Yes, one can be infuenced by anything…but being influenced is not the same as being manipulated. There is a very small group of individuals who are highly resistant to manipulation…or even influence from others. Case in point:
In 1972 my science teacher announced to my class that today we would prick our fingers to test our blood for type. I said no. I was not about to harm myself, just because a teacher told me to do it. Picture a middle-aged male teacher hearing “no” from a 12-year-old girl. He went ballistic…but no threat of his could budge me. The a****** bidded his time though, and a year later had me switched to a homeroom I hated. When I protested, and said he had no say over me, I will never forget his answer. He said that people did things all the time that they had no right to do, and it was better for me that I learned it early. As independent minded as I was as a child…I’m a thousand times more independent minded these days. I had the pleasure of reading this idiot’s obituary a few years ago. It was sweet. The scamdemic was merely a blip on my radar screen. My life was not disturbed in the least. I do however, miss those who have died from the clot shot. But even there, I knew full well what they had done to themselves, and I had prepped myself for the results.
Well, that escalated quickly, didn’t it?
via GIPHY
I’m not sure why you’ve had problems posting comments to my articles. Things seem to be working well now, but if you or anyone else experiences glitches, please let me know.
I understand your frustration, Searching, and it makes me angry, too. I often have to stop and remind myself that the propaganda and social pressures used to promote the shots were so strong, so strident, and so ubiquitous — and if you are still consuming the news or even just driving past a CVS marquee sign, you can see that they still are, to this day — that most “normal” people never stood a chance. Virtually every authority figure in the world — from doctors and politicians to celebrities to WHO and CDC spokespeople — told us to roll up our sleeves for the shots (for the good of us all!). Alas, our trust was misplaced. But I understand, because the sheer scope and scale of the betrayal was unprecedented.
One more thing I forgot to add…I do see billboards and ads in stores…but the only thing that goes through my mind is: why have black folk completely replaced white folk in print ads? Even if I was inclined to purchase their worthless junk, those ads would stop me. I would boycott. I don’t spend much money…even after receiving a pretty hefty inheritance.
Speaking of ads and displays in stores… Have you been inside a Target store lately?
On second thought, DON’T. It literally looks like no place that I know on planet Earth.
Yes, Anonymous, I understand the appeal of “storytelling” in advertising — but I find this ad incredibly unscrupulous because it was designed 100% to manipulate viewers’ emotions in a transparent attempt to go viral. I have never been a fan of ads in the form of heart-tugging vignettes with a brand’s logo slapped on at the end (see my review of last year’s Publix commercial), and for all practical purposes, that’s what this ad is. I doubt the great ad masters of advertising’s Golden Age would approve, and I suspect that consumers of the day would bristle at this tactic (or outright dismiss it with a shrug or a laugh) as well.
She’s healed! All we need to do is buy Chevys! Thank you Chevy!
Right, Jeff? It’s a Christmas — er, “holiday” miracle.
Once again, right smack on target, penetrating the devious, smarmy intent behind ALL commercial marketing (like this example) in such an incisive, adept manner! As predicted, several of my ‘smarter-than-the-average-bear’ friends sent me the ‘MUST SEE’ email when this syrupy bit of exploitative confection hit the airways and, like you, the blatant transparency of GM’s marketing people’s schtick stuck in my craw like a bit of unwelcome translucent chicken gristle! America needs a resurrection of Canada’s famed AD-BUSTERS to lay these affronts to intelligent reflectivity bare to the bone for the ‘less-smart-than-the-average-Booboo-bears’ who surround us! [Is awarding you the People’s Socialist Hero’s Medal for conspicuous unmasking of crass capitalistic advertising! Da!]
I’m no socialist, Anonymous, but I agree that most advertising is terrible. Some may feel that I am coming down too hard on this ad, but I think most are letting it off too easy (in fact, heaping praise upon it) for using the unimaginable pain of Alzheimer’s as a plot device with barely the most tenuous connection to Chevy.
Cranky, I agree with all that you say. It is obvious that so-called advertising today increasingly employs the techniques developed in propaganda. Getting people to feel is always easier then getting them to think. Conditioning them to act on a subconscious level is the goal.
Jacques Ellul’s 1964 classic “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes” does a deep dive into the craft and the various types of propaganda. According to Ellul, propaganda isn’t just for dummies anymore. He claims that intellectuals especially are the most vulnerable to propaganda. Hence, the blind lead the blind.
The translation from French to English leaves a little to be desired but it is still well worth the read, if you haven’t read it already.
Thanks for the recommendation, Jerry. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have heard of this Ellul fellow, as the idea that people of above-average intelligence may be more susceptible to propaganda became a bit of a hot topic at the height of the COVID madness.
Once again, thank you for the engaging discussion! (And for not being afraid to call me out when you think I’m being too cranky.) 😛
I’m sorry, but you lost me at John Denver. But I guess he fits very well into this type of ad.
Merry Christmas, Cranky, and a very Happy New Year!!
Oh, Robert! John Denver was and is a national treasure. I just found the use of his song here to be incredibly heavy-handed.
Thank you for being such a devoted reader and commenter, and best wishes for a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.
Who knew Chevrolet could cure a progressively debilitating disease like Alzheimer’s? Quick, someone call the Mayo Clinic! I agree with you CC, I’m disgusted at the way these corporations continue to try and manipulate us. As if riding around in her old Chevy Blazer could help granny recall her first kiss, the names of her grandchildren or that her husband needs help with Christmas dinner. This is definitely a new low. At least the “woke” ads don’t try to hide their machinations of deceit in layers of the warm fuzzies. Chevrolet/GM and whichever ad company came up with this treacle, you should be ashamed but of course, they are not.
Merry Christmas CC. Keep up your good work in the New Year.
Thanks, CynthiaV! I’ve appreciated your thoughts and insights over the past year and I’m so grateful for your support.
Merry Christmas!
I get it. Merry Christmas to all & a happy New Year!🎄🥳
Thanks, and to you as well!
Your “Cranky Creative” brand certainly is not fake. You definitely live up to your name, bless your heart (if you have one).
This ad, like the Publix ads, that you also hate, is great. I would rather see actors faking love for one another then another car morphing in to a rocket ship (also fake).
Chevy clearly wants those contrived warm fuzzies for senile old grandma to rub off on them. Total manipulation I agree but isn’t that what effective ads are supposed to do? This ad is no different then any made-for-TV Hallmark tear-jerker that keeps the viewer tuned in so she can ultimately see more commercials. The actors are fake but the viewer’s emotions aren’t. Why is it ok for Hallmark but not ok for Chevy? They both are selling us something.
I really enjoy your website and respect your critiques but this time I think you are badly in need of a hug.
Merry Christmas Mr. Scrooge!
Thanks, Jerry. I understand what you’re saying and I respect your opinion. But just imagine, if you can, how you might feel differently if someone in your own immediate family were dealing with the pain, anguish, and heartbreak of dying of Alzheimer’s.
All of a sudden, this ad might start to seem a little crass.
At least with a Hallmark movie, all they are selling you is entertainment.
Here, they’re pimping a goddamn automobile brand. Chevy’s goal here is nothing more meaningful than to build word-of-mouth, mindshare, and unit sales.
Although truthfully, this ad doesn’t even do that well as the truck could be any brand.
Thanks again for taking the time to write, and Merry Christmas!