It’s no secret that the Buick brand has struggled with a bit of an identity crisis, as of late. Despite the security offered by its inclusion in the GM fold, the Buick name suffers from the same domestic blandness that eventually drove the Oldsmobile brand into the ground.
Understanding that it was in desperate need of some reinvigoration, General Motors has spent the latter part of 2017 and 2018 year-to-date crafting an organic marketing opportunity for the 2018 Buick Regal. That opportunity came in the form of last month’s nuptials of the (now) Duke and Duchess of Sussex. And Buick was determined to get some positive international press, by making a ‘winner’ out of a bunch of ‘losers.’
It has been reported by Nielsen that 29.2 million Americans tuned in to view the wedding of Prince Harry to American actress, Meghan Markle. Considering the minimum 5-hour time difference between Great Britain and the U.S., it means that some East Coast viewers were waking up as early as 4 or 5 AM (EST) to view the guest arrivals. Some West Coast viewers simply stayed awake from the day before.
And their viewing options were plentiful, with the proceedings aired nationwide on NBC, ABC and CBS affiliates, as well as on FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC. On each of these networks, millions of dollars of ad placement promoted the Buick Regal. Throughout the day, Social Media feeds were littered with posts from rabid enthusiasts, many of whom were hosting viewing parties of all sizes. Dressed to the nines, sporting fancy hats to emulate the haute couture of British nobility, it was clear that a large segment of our population was captivated.
However, a study on social media activity revealed that the majority of these U.S. viewers were living a lie. Sure, they were beating the sunrise on a Saturday morning, preparing fancy hors d’oeuvres, and dressing in their Sunday best. But on any other day, most of these viewers would be the ones (i) posting passive aggressive eCards about their inability to sleep in on a Saturday (ii) complaining about the perils of marriage, and (iii) celebrating pettiness by bashing those they envy on soulless E Network red carpet fashion commentary shows.
And yet today, those hypocritical losers were presenting themselves as some sort of refined nobility. And prompted by the string of Buick commercials instructing them to do so, a vast majority of those posts were flagged with #RegalLikeARoyal and #BuickWinner. Even further, many used the customized SnapChat filter that placed the user behind the wheel of a Buick Regal, with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in the backseat.
Classy, Buick. Real classy.
While Buick has yet to release the official entry numbers or announce the actual winners, we’ll inevitably be surprised by any amount of interest in the Buick Regal. Then again, there were a few years where we didn’t think anyone would be interested in Prince Harry’s ginger ass, and he turned out to be an international heart-throb who scored some serious sweet-meat.
Man, the world is a weird place.
