GM to Run a Corporate Super Bowl Ad Touting Electric Vehicles

GM declined to share the ad in advance, but people familiar with the effort said it would include Will Ferrell, the comedic actor known for his time on “Saturday Night Live” and roles like Ron Burgundy.

GM will also run a separate Super Bowl ad devoted to a single brand, the all-electric Cadillac Lyriq, set to launch next year. The commercial for Lyriq will highlight the company’s hands-free driver-assistance system, dubbed Super Cruise.

The corporate marketing effort is an attempt to boost awareness of GM’s work in electric vehicles and, in turn, support its individual brands rolling out new models in the category, said Deborah Wahl, global chief marketing officer at GM.

The company laid out its vision for a heightened focus on environmental initiatives three years ago, and has since implemented new technology and plans to roll out electric vehicles across brands including Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet and GMC.

“It’s really an inflection point for GM,” Ms. Wahl said. “We’ve had all that change inside, but perceptions of the company outside didn’t reflect that. There’s no better place to start a movement than a Super Bowl platform.”

The campaign, which was created by McCann Worldgroup, comes as companies face disruption amid the Covid-19 pandemic and work harder to resonate with consumers who care more about corporate responsibility.

“We spent the last year making ventilators and PPE,” Ms. Wahl said. “This cemented a newfound sense of purpose and what our role is in contributing in our own communities.”

GM Chairman and Chief Executive Mary Barra last year announced a number of initiatives to counter climate change and shift its approach by 2025, including plans to offer 30 all-electric models globally.

The company this month unveiled a new, more-contemporary logo as well as an ad campaign called “Everybody In”—with an emphasis on the “ev,” for electric vehicles—to promote its efforts during the Consumer Electronics Show. 

The Super Bowl ad promoting GM as a company is an extension of that campaign, which is set to run with new ads throughout the year. It marks only the second time in recent years that GM has promoted its corporate brand in the game, where 30 seconds of commercial space currently costs upward of $5 million.

GM also featured its corporate brand in a 2007 Super Bowl ad, an effort to promote its fixation on quality. But the ad, which showed a robot dreaming about suicide after it made a mistake, sparked backlash. The company ultimately removed the depiction of the robot plunging from a bridge for future re-airings.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at [email protected]