This General Motors ad is getting a lot of shit from suicide support groups, who arent happy with a TV ad depicting a robot worker committing suicide after getting fired - they say that it isnt cool for a company to present suicide as a viable option for someone who has lost their job.
The immediate reaction I had was a bit different - which idiot marketer thought it would be a good idea to poke gentle fun at the topic of post-layoff depression and suicide, in an advertisement for a company that has fired more than 70,00 workers since 1997?
And the end of the ad is just creepy. After seeing the robot jump to his death, we see him wake up. It was all a horrible dream - and the voiceover tells us that GM's new 100,000 mile warranty is something all its workers are thinking about.
Awww, thats funny. They have nightmares of killing themselves after being fired for making small mistakes. Gee, GM really sounds like the place to be right now...
I agree. I haven't read anything about the heat the ad has received, but I thought the same thing when I watched it during the game. That idiot marketer didn't think of the human element, especially all the people replaced by robots over the years.
Sad commercial. When even the robots are getting laid off, you know the company is in trouble.