Commentary
Slate Customizes America, One Pickup At A Time
- by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, Yesterday
Who knew that a new car company, conceived in secrecy for the last three years, could be so dead-on in its understanding of the contemporary cultural moment?
Last week, Slate introduced its new, radically stripped-down and affordable EV pickup truck -- under $20k with EV tax credits. It’s tariff-proof (made in the USA) and so wildly customizable that the two-seat pickup (which can be covered in a variety of body wraps) can also be turned into a 5-seat SUV (with two different types of roofs.)
So a bored Slate owner can affordably wrap, rewrap, or unwrap the body -- like playing with some life-sized Legos of the future.
At bottom, the choose-your-own-adventure generic pick-up truck looks vaguely retro, plain and proud, like it could have worked a farm in the 1950s.
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Still, it speaks to the present moment and beyond.
At a time when Elon Musk’s EV empire, restamped as “evil,” is attacked and tanking daily, Slate offers yes, a clean slate in the EV space, as the perfect antidote to Musk’s failed cybertruck.
Its name is even a sly scramble of the letters in Tesla.
Which is not to say that zero multibillionaires were involved in Slate’s development.
Apparently, Jeff Bezos invested in a 2023 funding round. If so, it’s his most clear-headed and self-aware move to date.
Slate started as a project within Re:Build, a manufacturing conglomerate founded by Jeff Wilke, the former CEO of Amazon's worldwide consumer business, and Miles Arnone, co-founder of Cannon Capital and current Re:Build CEO.
Chris Barman, Slate’s CEO, spoke about its affordability. The definition of what's affordable is broken,” he said in a statement. “Slate exists to put the power back in the hands of customers who have been ignored by the auto industry.”
He also spoke of Slate’s innate philosophy: “simplifying the manufacturing process and reindustrializing America.”
Those lofty goals have somehow been translated into a debut ad campaign from Mischief @ no fixed address that is as unexpected and attention-getting as the pickup truck itself.
But instead of reindustrializing America, the campaign is rehumorizing the ad industry, showing automotive advertisers that it’s okay to stray from the safe and customary.
Greg Hahn, co-founder and CCO of Mischief, toldme, “There was no formal pitch. We fell in love with the company. They have a really fresh perspective on automotive, and its reason for being was that most people can’t afford the cars they want. It’s something the market was ready for.”
Hahn added, “Everyone wants a nice car -- and changing [this one] is basically like putting apps on your phone.”
Still, shapeshifter Slate's is the only automotive campaign to introduce itself with a commercial about death, pickle juice and human taxidermy.
Let’s back up. It all started last weekend in Venice, California when for five days straight, a Slate truck was parked on an innocuous block, each day featuring a different attention-getting wrapping promoting the logo of a hilarious new business that also explained its purpose, like a “Shark Tank” for the ridiculous on wheels.
For instance, “CryShare” offers a service that picks up your screaming baby in the middle of the night, drives the fussy kid around, and delivers a sleeping bundle back home.
I almost went for it till I saw the four very legit-looking baby seats fastened to the roof.
I don’t know how they picked just one business to make a spot for TV and social media, because they were all so semi-believable while out there.
The first video runs almost two minutes, and a 30-second cutdown ran last week on “Saturday Night Live.”
There’s always something so poignant about hearing from a kindly entrepreneur/ small business owner who is completely deluded about how well his company is doing. Especially when his business is “Taxiderming your family.” That’s right -- you too could have Uncle Mel hanging in the living room.
Except that the owner left the “m” off his Goth logo, “Taxider My Family.”
And talk about effortlessly wrapping and unwrapping. Ross Fletcher’s business is a whirlwind. While talking about pickle juice and dropping Grandma Jean in the casket, he mentions that “when we got canceled online for ill-advised branding, we needed a full body rewrap the same day.” (Cut to a shot of the wrap featuring an elderly woman with the words “I’m stuffed” underneath.)
Ross is standing by, waiting for the rewrap, while on his phone, saying, “I don’t know how to turn comments off.”
There’s also a bit showing him reengineering the back of the truck to fit the various coffin sizes, including the most popular, “petite senior.”
At the end, he speaks to the risk-taking essence of every earnest dreamer or entrepreneur out there.
“I can wrap this in whatever I want,” he says. “Some of the ideas --you just go for it. And if they fail, you’ve got other ideas. At least I do.”
Thank you, Slate, for showing us a vision for our future. There’s something reinvigorating about rewrapping America.
MediaPost's MADblog columnist.