Chevy Uses App and Twinkies to Stick Out at the Super Bowl

If you watched the Super Bowl this year, you most likely saw Chevy’s apocalypse commercial. Pretty funny stuff. Did you catch the Twinkie connection?

General Motors has pronounced itself pleased with its elaborate efforts to draw attention to the three commercials it bought for its Chevrolet division during the Super Bowl.

One of those commercials, “2012,” memorably poked fun at speculation that, according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end this year. The commercial, by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, part of the Omnicom Group, showed the only survivors of a cataclysm — wrought by disasters like an alien invasion, heinous weather and volcano eruptions — to be owners of Chevy Silverado trucks.

At the end of the commercial, as frogs start to fall from the sky, the survivors share what seems to be the only food to have survived the apocalypse: a box of Twinkies.

It is rare for one brand’s ad to feature another brand made by another company, but the “2012” spot was one of two in Super Bowl XLVI that did so. (A commercial for General Electric showed how turbines made by G.E. helped power breweries that make Budweiser beer.)

The appearance of Twinkies in “2012” was a nod to decades of jokes about their recipe guaranteeing their longevity.

The creative team at Goodby, Silverstein was seeking a funny answer to this question, said Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer at General Motors in Detroit: “After this catastrophe, what’s going to be left?”

The approval of the Twinkies parent, Hostess Brands, was sought by the agency before the commercial was filmed, he added.

That was confirmed by Amy Clark, director for snack marketing at Hostess. “The humorous ad is a fun way of bringing together two iconic American brands – Chevy and Twinkies,” Ms. Clark said in an e-mail on Friday. “We were delighted to be part of it and we have enjoyed seeing the positive consumer response.”

According to a recap by Adweek.com and YouTube, “2012” finished sixth among 27 commercials from Super Bowl XLVI that have had more than a million views on YouTube. By Friday afternoon, the total number of views had reached almost 6.7 million.

To build interest in all three Chevy spots, G.M. began offering, weeks before Super Bowl Sunday, a free app that viewers could use during the game to take quizzes, interact with each other on Twitter and win prizes.

There were 725,000 downloads of the Chevy Game Time app, as it was called, Mr.  Ewanick said. “At one point, there were 12 to 13 million page views in the app,” he added.

Chevrolet was not the only Super Bowl sponsor that sought to take advantage of the increasing interest among consumers in so-called second-screen experiences as they watch television.

Coca-Cola, which ran three spots during the game, offered a live stream on a Web site that featured the brand’s polar bear characters’ reactions to the Super Bowl, the halftime show and the ads. By the third quarter, Adage.com reported, more than 600,000 people were watching the Coca-Cola live stream.

Read more at the NY Times.

Vote for the JHHS Robotics Team Video in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow National Contest!

The Jackson Hole High School Robotics Team has reached the Final Round in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow National Contest! Out of 2500 entrants in the first round, they won a computer and video camera for being in the top 25. 

The second round required an entry of a student-created video, and one of their videos made the top 12!  JHHS and the robots team will receive $70,000 worth of equipment.

Jackson Hole High School

 
Now, the team needs your help to be #1!

Go to https://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/video/index.jsp#top to see the videos and VOTE (as many times as you want).  Click on the vote tab underneath our video, and it will ask to register your email.  The top five finalist schools will win cash prizes.

This is an amazing opportunity for our community.

Please vote early, vote often and tell your friends - put it on Facebook!  Share with friends and family!

About the Contest:

Samsung is dedicated to helping children share the wonder of life, learning, and the planet. Through the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest we will give away more than $1,000,000 worth of technology to schools around the country.

Samsung and its partners called on public school teachers to raise student interest in science, technology, engineering and math by inviting them to answer the challenge, "Show how science or math can help the environment in your community." More than 1,500 application essays came from teachers and students across the country. The top 25 were chosen and sent video production kits containing a Samsung laptop, camcorder and software from Adobe. Twelve finalists have been selected and are featured on this site.

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Judging Panel will select four grand prize winners and we´re asking you to help select the fifth grand prize winner — our Community Choice Winner — by voting below. Click on the videos below to view, then vote for your favorite!

Vote Now - Public Voting Closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, March 12, 2012!

Read more at https://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/video/showcase.html

The 2012 Subaru Impreza: Sensible Shoes Never Looked So Good

Check out what Todd Bianco of ACarIsNotARefrigerator.com has to say about the 2012 Subaru Impreza!

In any constellation, some stars appear brighter than others. In the constellation of Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd. – one of Japan’s largest industrial companies – its subsidiary, Subaru, is that shining star.

Literally and figuratively, Subaru, which is the Japanese word for the Pleaides – has been a rock star in the depressed auto sales environment spawned by the collapse of the economy in 2008. Over the past few years, Subaru has seen double-digit sales increases and 2011 was its best year ever.

Perhaps it’s Subaru’s legendary reliability or perhaps its just that the company stayed laser-focused on its core “outdoor lifestyle vehicles” for its rabidly-loyal customers. Whatever the reason, there is no argument that Subaru has hit a successful formula that continues to resonate with hard-core enthusiasts as well as more recent members of the Subaru family.

If you know nothing about Subaru, you should know that it has two defining traits. First, it’s the only mass-market auto manufacturer that uses flat boxer engines in all its vehicles. (Porsche uses boxer engines in its sports cars, but not its other products.) And that boxer engine always drives all four wheels to form what Subaru calls symmetrical all-wheel drive.

Here’s an animation of how the Subaru boxer engine and symmetrical all-wheel drive work:

While Subaru is a popular niche brand in the Southland, you really need to drive up to Big Bear, Mammoth or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest to appreciate how many people choose a Subaru over other AWD cars. The first time I went to Jackson Hole, I was amazed by the number of people (full-time residents) who had a big 4-wheel drive pickup or SUV and a Subaru wagon in their driveways.

The Impreza has been Subaru’s humble entry-level car for many years. For 2012, while Honda and Toyota played it safe with subtle evolutions of their core products, Subaru took a quantum leap with the Impreza. The body, while remaining almost identical in size to the outgoing model, received new creased and crisp sheet metal and the interior lost much of the cheap-looking plastics in favor of more tailored, textured and soft-touch materials.

Beneath the handsome new metal (with nicely detailed wheel wells) is Subaru’s new 2.0L boxer engine making a relatively modest 148 hp 145 lb-ft of torque. The new engine sheds half a liter and 22 horsepower, but you’d never know it because its power and torque is managed much more efficiently by the new Lineartronic CVT (continuously variable transmission) that replaces the old-school four-speed automatic. Both a 5-speed manual and the CVT are available, but the CVT is the only transmission offered on the top-line Limited model.

Subaru claims a zero to 60 mpg time of 9.8 seconds, 0.3 seconds faster than the last Impreza that had a more powerful engine. While it’s not glacial, it’s 1/10th of a second slower than a standard Prius. It did seem quick off the line, but it takes a bit more time and effort for the engine to achieve highway speed.

The big news, however, is that fuel economy jumped from a decidedly uncompetitive 20 mpg city, 26 mpg highway to 27 mpg city, 36 mpg highway. That stunning 30% increase instantly makes Subaru competitive with other subcompact cars, even while sporting the heavier AWD hardware not available on any competitor like the Honda Civic or Ford Focus.

The new Impreza has a smaller gas tank (14.5 gallons), but with the boosted fuel economy, it still has a potential cruising range of more than 500 miles.
The base 2012 Impreza 2.0i sedan is $17,495. Additional trim levels are Premium and Limited. Add $500 for the 5-door version and $1,000 for the 5-door Sport. I wanted to test the much more rakish and desirable 5-door Sport Limited model; but those are so popular, dealers can’t keep them in stock.

My gracious host at Subaru Pacific had a loaded Limited sedan (MSRP $24,895) ready for me to test. The standard Lineartronic CVT produces the best fuel economy. The sedan is identical to the 5-door/Sport model from the B-pillar forward, so both should have the same driving characteristics.

First, I’d like to state for the record that I’m not a big fan of CVTs. CVTs are a bit buzzy and the mechanical shifts I like to feel when driving are missing. That said, Subaru’s CVT is pretty advanced and civilized. Humming and complaining was reserved for heavy acceleration. However, in normal stop-and-go city traffic and highway speed cruising, the transmission works well and is unobtrusive.

The Lineartronic’s “M” mode gives the driver the feel and control of a 6-speed automatic. Handsome silver paddle shifters behind the steering wheel engage the fun. The LCD information screen between the analog gauges displays the number corresponding to the “gear” you feel you’re in. Slick stuff, but it’s more of a gimmick than useful. You’ll find yourself just leaving it in Drive and saving the manual mode for a steep decline….

Read the full article on ACarIsNotARefrigerator.com.