Car Companies Pull Back at New York Auto Show

by jill ~ April 15, 2009

The New York International Auto Show, which runs through April 19 this year at the Javits Center in Manhattan, might be the only time in its 109-year history where hecklers have made themselves so vocal at the show.You all know that American economy has historically relied heavily on the auto industry.  Statistics still show that roughly 2.5% of the American economy depends on the auto industry for their jobs directly.

But even so, everyday Americans are beginning to see the automakers (one of two high profile groups getting government bailout funding) as the enemy, it’s finally turning into a

According to this story in Monday’s New York Times, “Glamour Dims as Hecklers Hit the Auto Show” - the models whose job is solely to answer basic questions and look pretty in front of the cars are hearing the brunt of the complaints; things that range from: your company is going bankrupt, your car company killed my cousin in Iraq, why an electric car now?  It’s too late.  And more.

Similar themes are reflected in this PRWeekUS story, “Car companies pull back at New York Auto Show,” which essentially gives a rundown of the scaled down costs and decreased overall presence by auto companies at the show this year.

One interesting comment in the PR Week article comes from Geoff Day, director of communications for Mercedes-Benz USA, which reduced its PR budget for the show slightly.  “But Day believes that there’s a net benefit to the streamlined marketing efforts.  ‘I think this year we’re going to have better ROI [from the New York show] because we’ve [cut] back on some of the infrastructure costs, [while] dialing up on the content of the story,’ he explained.  Returning to “PR 101,” Day believes the New York show will garner as much coverage as any other event this year.  ‘If you have a look around [at the other automakers showing], it’s looking at the most effective and efficient way to tell the story,’ he noted.”

Unfortunately, unlike other years, some of the coverage will be negative (and not just negative about the cars themselves), but this is to be expected in current times. In some ways, the auto industry is opening itself up to the criticism.  But the good news is that that’s also good PR.  By being transparent, the companies (or at least their spokes models) are taking the comments and critics of the industry.  Maybe the higher-ups will listen.