Would you buy a car from Ed Whitacre?
Ed Whitacre built Southwestern Bell into telcom behemoth AT&T. He helped close the deal to sell Anheuser-Busch to InBev. Can he also sell a Chevy?
Advertising Age reports that General Motors Corp. Chairman Ed Whitacre plans to make a personal pitch to American consumers in an “introductory” television ad next week. The 60-second spot will be followed by separate television spots featuring GM’s surviving car brands, according to the story.
“The idea is to showcase GM’s best products, with Whitacre urging consumers to take a look at what the automaker has to offer,” the Ad Age story reported.
For more, go to Ad Age.
Whitacre was tapped by the Obama administration to head GM’s board of directors when the automaker exited bankruptcy in July.
St. Louisans best know Whitacre as the man who moved Southwestern Bell’s headquarters to Texas in 1992. (Local lore holds that one reason Whitacre moved the company was that he had been unable to gain admittance as a member of the St. Louis Country Club.)
Whitacre eventually turned Southwestern Bell into the nation’s largest telephone services provider, culminating with the acquisition of AT&T in 2005.
Whitacre also played a major role in another St. Louis-based company’s future. Whitacre, who had served on Anheuser-Busch Cos.’ board since 1988, became one of the brewer’s go-to negotiators soon after Belgian brewer InBev made its initial offer for the company in June 2008.
After a month-long standoff between the companies, Whitacre was one of three directors who contacted representatives of InBev in early July. The message: If InBev was interested in pursuing a transaction with Anheuser-Busch, it should submit its best proposal for an acquisition before the meeting of A-B’s board on July 9.
The offer that emerged after those conversations eventually led to the $52 billion buyout of Anheuser-Busch.
to hell with him. another pocketliner. with him onboard, who needs enemies.
You’re kidding, right?
Whitacre is a political hack who knows nothing about cars.
He got the job running GM as a sweet reward for favors granted. In other words, cronyism. He brings nothing of value to the table.
The American people are so distracted by the hands of the magician that they refuse to look behind the curtain.
The shot answer is NO.
Many people who used to buy GM because it was an American company will no longer do so because of the UAW/govt controls and owns them. I am one of those people who is fed up with the “UAW-GM/ scr$w the investors in bankruptcy” business model. My ‘02 and ‘06 GM’s are my last.
GM’s last ditch effort is to get new customers by getting foreign/import buyers to switch. Very little chance of this working.
Although the UAW would have killed the company if this was tried, GM would have been far better off to eliminate the UAW and it’s overhead, putting that savings into lower prices and better autos. This business model may have some chance to succeed, and would have also been viewed favorably by most Americans. This, along with a reasonable govt loan (not takeover), would have brought, private investors in to loan additional funds to make it work.
I vote with my wallet against UAW-GM.
It appears Mr. Whitacre fancies himself a Lee Iacocca. There’s an old rule of thumb in the advertising business that you generally don’t put the CEO of a company in an ad. It rarely works–essentially there’s a reason actors are used because they often do work.
Mr. Whitacre has a serious ego and the advertising company is more than likely playing to that ego in order to garner more business from GM. It’s a fool’s-gold game of sorts since if the ad program doesn’t stimulate new sales, operating cashflow is reduced. Eventually the true loss will be born by the employees and stockholders
In the meantime another exec walks away unscathed, probably more notable for the experience, with a ton of cash in his/her pocket.
My understanding is he will be offering a 60 day test drive period after which owners can return the car if not completely satisfied. If so this is an indication of how fast GM’s market share is eroding.
don’t even think about buying a chevy
Whitacre knows nothing about customer service. Every company he acquired, he gutted. at&t has destroyed the Bellsouth territory. All they care about is money. Customer service has gone down the toilet. I wonder what he will do with all the returned cars. Maybe he can get the taxpayers to bail him out again. Don’t trust this man. He’s the one who said, the phone lines belong to the company so they will tap whoever’s line they want to. So much for the Constitution. Don’t trust this man!
Watch out for this guy. He has an ego the size of his home state of TX. Many associates of mine work for SBC, now at&t. None have any good words for this guy. Everyone I know wishes ha had left SBC 20+ years ago. Their retirement portfolios would be much stronger if he had. And yes he was instrumental is having SBC move the headquarters to Austin TX because, he could not get membership at the St. Louis Country Club. (He wasn’t “old money”). Wait and see if he doesn’t prove to be another Obama goof.
I saw one of those commercials. Not impressed by phone salesman. Obama motors needs to die and get out of the way. After all this is the U.S. not the old Soviet east europe where they built cars nobody wanted.