Oh come on Olympic marketers! I was at the Chinese New Years parade in Vancouver yesterday along with 50,000 other cold and wet people. Only in Vancouver would we stand outside for 3 hours in the pouring rain whilst freezing our tushes off. Anyways, my beef is with the GM and/or VANOC marketers that allowed their 3 Olympic Mascots to go out in the plainest long box GM pickups ever offered for sale.
I mean, if the trucks had carpet interiors I'd be surprised. I think GM offers upgrade trim levels like "Tahoe" or "Sierra" on their trucks so why not put a half decent truck in the parade. Those upgrade trims give the trucks nicer paint, wheels, accessories. It would make GM look like a nice product (OK, they have big worries now to deal with but why not try to sell a truck) and it would give the impression that the Olympic Mascots deserve a cool ride.
Maybe GM has a hybrid product that the mascots could have rode in/on? Then the brand could have offered two messages: premium product; good for the environment. As it was I only got one message: the mascots qualified as little more than "cargo."