• by Karl Greenberg , July 2, 2009

General Motors' Buick division is launching new advertising this weekend that extends the latest campaign for the division, one of four that General Motors will hang onto as it sells Saab, Hummer, Saturn, and Pontiac.

The new ads extend the "Take a look at me now" brand effort that launched earlier this month. Susan Docherty, general manager for Buick, Pontiac and GMC, said in a virtual press conference that the effort touting both the overall brand and its newest vehicle, the 2010 LaCrosse sedan, is intended to stir interest in Buick from among a younger cohort.

"We want to prove that we can overcome a certain level of apathy for the brand; that takes compelling product." She said that the brand's hit crossover, Enclave, is bringing in buyers from outside GM and enjoys an average buyer age 10 years younger than the rest of the Buick brand.

The first phase of Buick ads started on June 12. The new ad will run specifically in cinema, per Docherty, with heavy emphasis over this weekend, "which is one of the biggest movie-premiere times of the year."

The 60-second spot shows an effete, supercilious movie director overseeing a movie shoot featuring different Buick vehicles. The vehicles are treated more like movie stars than vehicles. At one point the director says, "Amazing. It's a renaissance." Docherty says phase two of the campaign will come in late July and early August, "when we have a good supply of vehicles in dealerships." Those ads will feature Meatloaf's hit, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."

One of those ads has a cop showing up at a lover's lane overlook to examine a LaCrosse parked there. While nobody's in the front seat, his flashlight illuminates the dashboard and its ambient ice-blue lighting. The cop then shines his light into the back seat and begins a reprimand. "All right, kids...." Then he realizes they're not kids. "Um, chief? Mrs. Chief?"

Docherty said LaCrosse will be the only premium sedan in its segment with a four-cylinder engine, "making LaCrosse the most fuel-efficient sedan in its class."