GM dealers go after Toyota ads - is truth collateral damage?

[Kevin]

Interesting coverage in BrandWeek of a marketing struggle taken up apparently by GM dealers:

GM Dealers Fight Toyota in the Trenches
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003562732

"General Motors dealers are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. A number of leaders at the dealership level, who believe GM's corporate ads aren't aggressive enough, have banded together to take Toyota head-on as GM continues to lose sales to its Japanese competition.

"Local dealer radio ads, being distributed nationwide, take issue with Toyota positioning itself as an American car company. Further, a lengthy e-mail chain prompts dealers to challenge claims Toyota makes in its Tundra "See-saw" ads showing the truck hauling a load of cinderblocks up a steep ramp."

Unfortunately, it seems the GM dealers don't think their counter-claims need to be true...

"An internal GM e-mail, obtained by Brandweek, reads: 'This Georgia dealer probably obtained legal approval for the [radio ad] by holding the script out of his car window as he drove by the lawyer's office.'"

Does this attitude ring a bell with anyone?

"Frost, who once had a Chevy Silverado parked on top of a crushed Toyota Camry in front of his dealership, is preparing other radio spots, which he plans on sharing with the GM dealer network. Of his most recent ad, he said, "I didn't run it by a lawyer at all. Because everything that is said is true.'"

And further on...

"Toyota and its agency, however, stand by the ad. A Saatchi senior producer released an affidavit stating that the Tundra trailer bed was indeed filled with 10,000 pounds of cinderblocks and he certified 'that at no time during the filming of this commercial was the Toyota Tundra truck modified or assisted to carry any object loaded.'"

Have we just seen in the political realm, over the last six or seven years, how far, for how long, you can get coupling a strong stance with a callous disregard for accuracy?

How many U.S. truck buyers are going to opt for the faith-based solution?

Is this the best GM can come up with in brand management?