General Motors Corp., Man, I Feel Like A Woman

A red Chevy truck packed with five young men roars down the mountainous countryside as Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" plays. Then the center man in the back seat starts singing along with Shania, serenading his friends with an off-key rendition of the song.

The others are unappreciative, especially when he squeaks out a line that begins with, "the best thing about being a woman." The driver and front-seat passenger exchange wry glances, shifting in their seats. Another in the backseat, with his brow furrowed, stares out the window in despair. On the other side of our singer, his buddy moves his leg away from the singer's, who is still toe-tapping. The front-seat passenger bites his lip, closes his eyes, and leans back against the headrest.

The narrator says, "If you're ever uncomfortable in a new Chevy Colorado coupe cab, it won't be because a lack of space."

He concludes with an enthusiastic, "Man, I feel like a woman," adding a "Whoo!" at the end for good measure. The driver throws another uncomfortable look toward the backseat.

The car continues down the road as a voiceover tells viewers that "Everything's bigger in Colorado" as the words "An American Revolution" appear onscreen, along with the Chevrolet logo.

The effort is quite a step away from the macho "Like a Rock" campaign that used Bob Seger's song.

The ad got mixed reviews from Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield, who called it "kinda cute and kinda homophobic."

This commercial could have been just as funny if it had stuck to the "bad singer" joke, something one of the men in the back seat clearly displays on his pained face. Instead, the ad emphasizes for humor more the homophobic fears the men have (moving a leg away and uncomfortable looks) based simply on the words of the song he sings all too enthusiastically.

The company thought better of the commercial and later modified the narration to remove the reference to being "uncomfortable."

This commercial was selected for the Clean-Up-Your-Act Award at the Commercial Closet 2005 IMAGES IN ADVERTISING AWARDS. In response, Brenda Rios, Manager of Diversity Communications for General Motors, provided this statement, "Chevrolet makes a broad range of products that appeal to an extensive, diverse customer base, from Aveo and Cobalt small cars to SUVs and full-size trucks. Our advertising is intended to capture the imagination of potential customers in a fun, engaging manner. It is never our intention of offend any customer demographic. This particular ad was developed more than a year ago and is no longer airing. As GM explores opportunities to market directly to GLBT customers, we are working to develop better insights into this buyer group. One method for doing so is through GM PLUS, an internal GLBT employee affinity group."

In 2002-2003, Chevrolet earned press for becoming title sponsor of an evangelical Christian music and worship tour to 16 cities called "Come Together and Worship." One of the speakers was Max Lucado, with Focus on the Family.