GM goes for hip with shotgun blog

[KILLER74Z28]

GM goes for hip with shotgun blog igotshotgun.com Web site uses citizen journalists.
January 31, 2007

BY KATIE MERX

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

General Motors isn’t known for being hip.

But it might just be onto something with its new igotshotgun.com Web site.

Quietly, during the last few months GM has been soliciting so-called "citizen journalists" from college campuses and freelance journalism Web sites to apply for a chance for GM to fly them to cool, invitation-only or pricey cultural and sporting events to meet celebrities, see the behind-the-scenes action and file video blogs to share with the world.

“GM sponsors events all over the world,” said GM spokesman Dee Allen. “We get a chance to see backstage what others never get a chance to see. We wanted to invite people to come back stage with us -- or ride shotgun, as you will.”

But the automaker wanted to get people to participate, too, so it put out a call for citizen journalists to do the videos from their own perspective.

The citizen journalists don’t get paid, but GM foots the bill for travel and accommodations and provides a daily stipend.

New York City’s Time Square was the location for the very first video blog, but the real kickoff will be from the Super Bowl with MTV’s TRL host Damien Fahey and three citizen bloggers, one of whom is so funny in her application videos, GM has been asked if she’s a ringer.

“She’s for real,” Allen said. “That was a citizen journalist sending something. Some of the pieces we put up will be pretty zany.”

Rebecca Taff’s posts are sure to be. She sent an application video in which she quizzed people on the streets of San Francisco about America’s addiction to coffee, asking to smell their breath and share their drinks.

Taff has been doing video and written blogs about her preparation for the Super Bowl, too: “I’ve never been to Miami. I’ve been shopping and wandering around … making some videos and random stuff like making salsa.”

Her videos are the kind of thing you might expect to see on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" or "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

It’s also the kind of thing GM hopes will draw people to its new entertainment site and create some goodwill among a demographic that might not have considered GM in its car shopping trips in the past.

But bloggers won’t be required to talk about GM or show GM logos.

“We’re not trying to sell cars, we’re not trying to sell trucks,” said GM spokesman Dee Allen. “We are trying to show GM in a little different light to an audience that when we do reach them I don’t think they think of us as being light.”

Contact KATIE MERX at kmerx@freepress.com.

Here is the website

http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/

[WMCC Gary]

No that is cool!