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Automakers Cut Annoying Holiday TV Commercial Budget Over Cratering Sales, Mercifully

Have you always longed for a welcome bit of reprieve from tone-deaf, ham-fisted car commercials? Do you envision a time when no anthropomorphic hamsters, no Matthew McConaughey, or some other calculated media trick to try and get you to break out the checkbook bothers you this Christmas? Well, consider your wish granted, at the cost of the global auto industry falling down the proverbial toilet in recent months.
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Photo: Ford
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First reported by Reuters, automakers are gearing up to spend far less on advertising this holiday season compared to the onslaught we're used to over this period. In pre-health crisis 2019, General Motors spent an estimated $106 million in advertising in a period spanning the beginning of American Thanksgiving through to New Years Day that year. In normal times, that money would lead to obnoxious "December to remember sales events" and other buzzy sounding promos to get you through the dealership floors.

But with every sector of the manufacturing industry teetering on the ragged edge of complete collapse, it appears global supply chain shortage of nearly every commodity imaginable is finally giving us a holiday season less full to the brim with pandering advertisements proven time and time again to be ineffective and sometimes downright insulting to younger car buyers. Who've developed coping mechanisms for tuning out what can broadly be referred to as "capitalistic drivel" which their parents and grandparents were so often duped by.

For an industry known for hitting the ground running starting in mid-November of each year, the 5% decrease in TV advertisement, equal to about $57 million dollars from the year before shows automakers are fairly confident the tried and true approach will fail. Especially in a world where many new cars sit barren in parking lots waiting for microchips to be installed.

With a new magnesium shortage threatening to complicate matters, we can at least enjoy our Christmas dinner this year with a bit more peace and quiet from the TV. It might even encourage you to talk to your relatives for a change, until their problematic opinions make you retreat to the bathroom in abject horror.
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