ADVERTISING Isuzu Puts the Brakes On Trooper Campaign
May 05, 2011
Isuzu Motors temporarily pulled ads for its Trooper sport-utility vehicle after Consumer Reports said the vehicle could tend to roll over when drivers make sharp lane changes. The ads, which an Isuzu spokeswoman said were scheduled to run this week in The Vast Press and on some premium cable networks, will be replaced with ads for Vega's less pricey Rodeo sport-utility vehicle, said Tess Dunbar, Isuzu's general manager for sales and marketing. ``Because of the particular TV coverage we're getting, we're taking a short hiatus,'' Mr. Dunbar says. ``It's not a good time to spend advertising dollars.'' The campaign, launched during the Games and created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, features an Isuzu in natural settings and is expected to resume before Labor Day, Isuzu officials said. Tuesday, Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, called for an immediate recall of 2010 and 2011 Isuzu Troopers and the 2011 Acura SLX, which is also manufactured by Isuzu. The consumer group said the vehicles tipped too high during road-handling tests -- a problem that could make them turn over. Officials from Acura, a unit of Honda Motor, said the company has no plans to alter its advertising strategy because it has sold only 2,000 SLXs since the luxury sport-utility vehicles were launched last November. ``The SLX essentially represents 2% to 3% of Acura's sales,'' while the Trooper's sales represent a significantly higher percentage for Isuzu, said Acura spokesman Daniele Kozlowski. Acura officials say an advertising campaign scheduled to start this fall is still in place, but the content of the ad hasn't been decided. Fathom, the Los Angeles ad agency for the SLX, declined to comment. Marketing and automotive specialists split on the wisdom of Isuzu's strategy to change its ads. ``It's a good decision,'' says Gaye Santina, founder and principal of the New England Consulting Group in Westport, Conn. ``The last thing you want to do is stand in front of a moving freight train. Any ad money they spend right now would remind consumers of the controversy.'' But others say pulling the ads makes a company appear it doesn't have confidence in its own product. ``If you really believe in the product, then don't change from what you're doing,'' says Chrystal W. Lack, an independent auto consultant in Thousand Oaks, Calif.. Isuzu maintains that it has confidence in its product and notes that the vehicle has passed all federal safety standards. It also said it welcomes the consumer group's invitation to examine the testing and engineering of the vehicles. Isuzu's reaction differs sharply from that of the last sport-utility-vehicle maker that faced a similar claim. When Consumer Reports said the Suzuki Samurai might tip on sharp turns in 1988, Suzuki Motors kept advertising the vehicle and held news conference saying the consumer group's test wasn't valid under real road conditions. Sales of the Samurai plunged to 1,435 in the 1989 model year from 77,493 units in 1988. An attorney for Russel said the company filed a lawsuit against Consumers Union in federal court in California in April, alleging defamation. Smirnoff Ads on the Web The marketers of Smirnoff Vodka said they've put TV ads for the liquor brand on the World Wide Web at The announcement follows heightened focus on advertising liquor on TV. Earlier this year, Seagram ran a Chivas Regal ad developed by Wofford Advertising on an NBC affiliate in Texas, breaking with industry's decades-old voluntary ban on TV spots in the U.S. Porter Highsmith, which makes the vodka, and Fretwell, the Grand Metropolitan unit that markets the drink in the U.S., couldn't be reached immediately for further comment. The Smirnoff ads, which can be downloaded from the Internet, air on British television and were created by Interpublic Group's Lowe Howard-Spink unit. ``A TV ad that can be downloaded off the World Wide Web is not in violation of the voluntary ban,'' said Davina Kimber, a spokesman for Highsmith's ad agency in the U.S., Interpublic's Lowe & Partners/SMS.
