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“Mahketing” 101: How Chevy accidentally won the internet

9 June, 2017

 

 

You can imagine how excited Chevrolet were when they came up with this concept. Get a bunch of definitely-not-paid-actors together, film them standing around your new range of cars chatting about how amazing every single feature is, give them a few dollars and send them on their way. The end result was, well, a bit shit really.

So the “post-production” addition of “Mahk” as one of the people hanging about checking out Chevy’s new range and generally taking the piss in the most brilliant fashion has boosted this campaign into the stratosphere, with three of the first four videos from YouTubers Zebra Corner so far having had in excess of two million views (as opposed to the 5,000 odd views on the official Chevrolet channel). There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?

Check the vids out below. Time well spent but probably not for the overly precious.

Today sees the fifth instalment in the series targeting millennials and Mahk is taking no bearded, flannel shirt wearing, typewriter-using prisoners.

 

 

ROTARY CHIC

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”