-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Motors' entire marketing team should be shot. Right after Rick Wagoner is executed by firing squad comprised of all the workers he has laid off due to GM running out of money.
Yesterday the company announced that their endorsement contract with Tiger Woods would end a year early so that GM can cut advertising costs while the company avoids bankruptcy. General Motors' advertising expenses are insane. They spend $240 million on sponsoring golf tournaments and other sporting events (over $20 million on golf alone). And Woods's contract entitled him to free use of Buick automobiles for any tournament, but GM will not disclose the annual payout Woods gets from GM. I once read a book about Tiger Woods's endorsement deals back in 1997, and at the time, for example, American Express would pay him $30 million over three or five years. This year Nike signed him to $100 million over 5 years...so GM surely pays him at least $5 million a year to drive around in a car brand that doesn't even sell 200,000 units annually, and the median driving age is 68.
Meanwhile, the company is making cuts across the board of business expenses. The most sensible one being the decision not to power the 562 clocks in their offices because it's too expensive to replace batteries or change them on daylight savings...
- General Motors' current advertising budget is $3 billion.
- Rick Wagoner makes $2.2 million per year...after raising his salary back to full compensation this year (had been making $1.5 million after a 50 percent cut).
- General Motors spent $1 billion to develop the Chevrolet Volt, but guess what ? They have no cash to bring it to market by the 2010 target.
And, Oh, look here! GM has also decided to cut TWO corporate jets from their fleet. A GM spokesguy says:
"It is response to budget cutbacks in general due to the sales slump and credit crisis," Wilkinson said, adding that two other planes were cut in September.
This coming after the hypocrisy of those three auto CEOs flying to Washington at a cost of $20,000 per round trip per man.. My favorite "them being at a loss for words" moment was when a Congressman from New York told them, "There is a delicious irony in seeing the three of you come off a private jet with tin cups in your hand." The most interesting case is Mr. Wagoner, who has publicly said that GM is cutting costs of executives who travel around the country, but his own costs will not be reduced, so he can keep his private jet. However, when the three executives return to D.C. after the Thanksgiving holiday because Speaker Pelosi gave them a complete mulligan, they may take carpools.
