It created a great deal of buzz in the last couple of days leading up to the show, and any buzz is good buzz. Besides, those pics are now just a distant memory, just as you must have known they would be once the real car was out.

 

It doesn't change anything.

I'm here to tell one and all that if someone did the same thing to Toyota, I'd be supportive of Toyota (that's a first!)

Again.....it comes down to ethics.......right and wrong.

 

all I can say at least it was the right leaked pictures and not the "other" concept that looked to 1969ish..
That would of ben bad news moreso than the ones everyone saw..

but hey Tom Brady of the New England Patriots lost his wallet and the guy returned it..BUT..wanted something in exchange..all I can say is GM got lucky we found GM's wallet and peeked inside to see what was in it, just like that guy who found Brady's and this HELPED in the public eye the Camaro cause..this thing had wings and took off like a firebird..oppss..I mean Camaro..but yea it was an avoided disater just by the right "classified" pic being leaked..if such a thing can happen..I guess it did..

 

And tell my why that "buzz" was better than the "buzz" that would have been made at the unveiling itself?

A few days earlier makes NO difference at all....hell, it's been 4 years since we saw a new Camaro, someone leaking stolen photos sure as hell isn't how I wanted to see it's return.

 

Because people liked the damn thing! It got them talking about how great it looked, and just jacked up the anticipation even more. Go back and read the posts!
I'm not advocating it as something that I was glad got done, I'm all for the stolen property thing. Do you seriously believe that the response it has gotten to this point was hurt by the release of the pictures? Again, I don't condone it, but I don't see how the "buzz" of the illegal pix hurt in this particular case, other than some peoples feelings, rightfully so.


Then why did you look at them? For all you knew, it was just a clown suit that may or may not have ended up looking much like the finished car. I've seen Corvette clays that looked nowhere near what ended up being built. But until you see the finished car, you don't know if you've seen it for real or not, even if it's a GM picture.

 

Point is, was it wrong that the pictures were leaked? Yes, they were stolen property.

Was there any good that came from it? Yes, because people liked what they saw.

Were the GM folks upset about it because they didn't get to control the situation? Yes, because if the pictures would have bombed, they would have been in damage control before the car was ever really seen by anybody.

But they were fortunate in this case becase the leaked pictures did in fact go over very well. Not saying the ends justify the means, only that in THIS PARTICULAR CASE, it didn't do them any apparent harm (to the reception of the finished concept).

 

I understood them the first time I read them...why can't you understand the point that people would have still "talked about them" after the official unveiling? Hell, after 4 years, I was plenty "jacked up" about the unveiling.

Do you open your Christmas presents a week early? Celebrate your birthday a week early?

I understood that just fine...I never said otherwise...

What would have happened if the leaked pictures causes the opposite reaction?

Not sure WTF that matters here....

Precisely the point Scott and Jason were making...it was an illegal, uncontrolled release of an unfinished product. NO corporation wants their messy closets exposed until they're ready to let it be seen.

We all love these kinds of pictures, but it would have been better to wait until after the unveiling just to be able to see how they got to the final design.

Bottom line is that, as I said earlier, there could have been very bad things happen because of this leak.....stock holder lawsuits being the most probable....a massive stock dump could have also happened if the reaction was a big negative.

Can't people wait a few more days anymore?!?

 

Personally, I think the "leak" was staged to build hype for the release...not like any company hasn't done that before.

It's all about effective marketing...and the "leak" definately boosted interest in the days before the show.

Another theory, is the leak happened in enough time to make subtle changes. GM could have leaked the pics to see reactions, what people like what they didn't like and make the subtle changes before the actual launch.

There was two diff front bumpers on the leaked car after all...

Again, my theories, by no means do I have evidence to back it up...just makes sense in my own little world.

 

Scott has adamantly said that the leak was NOT a planned event.

There were people that lost their jobs over it.

 

The leak was not staged - period. People were fired due to the leak.

Please listen to our Podcast interview with Scott Settlemire, this may clear somethings up. Podcast 18 Interview

 

There's two issues here and yet everybody is combining them in to one.
The first issue is the actual leak of the pictures. This was wrong of the person who did it. I don't think anyone is arguing against that. If GM wanted to take action against this person privatly then thats fine.
The second issue is the hissy fit GM threw publicly after the pics were leaked trying to get them back, even though half of us had seen them.
This was very stupid PR wise. Why?
Well think of it this way. When everyone saw the leaked pics did anyone say OMG I am a horrible person I shouldn't have seen those pics, I shall go turn myself in and gouge out my eyes??? NO of course not. 100% of the people who saw the pics were dying to see them and were going to great lengths to get a peak of them even after they were taken down. Had GM done nothing publicly at this point 100% of the buying pubic were happy to see the leaked pics.
Now what did GM do. Instead they threw a hissy fit and wanted their pics back. This is the internet. I don't care what you do but your not getting your leaked pics to disapper completely. Your stupid to think you can. So what did this result in? This resulted in some people backing GM and agreeing the pics shouldn't have been leaked. They were more then happy to give the pics back and not show them. It probably helped they had already seen them
But the rest of the people were pissed off they weren't getting to see the pics some other people got to see. Whether right or wrong, the fact remains they were not happy. By choosing this seond option GM pissed off some of it's buying public, however, had GM been smart and chose the first option everyone of us who saw the pics would have been happy.
GM gained nothing by choosing the second. There was no way to get all the pics back, they only thing they did was **** off people they didn't have to.
Again they should have done something internally, privately, to the root cause, the leaker, but not threw a public fit like they did. The public didn't leak the pics, the public doesn't take kindly to threats, the public wants to see what it knows is out there and others have seen.

 

For the last time....GM HAD to "throw a hissy fit"...they have a LEGAL responsibility to their stockholders to do so. They were PO'd because they wrongly were put into this position in the first place.

To do nothing would have at the very least condoned the leak...at the very worst "could" have cost them serious $$ and lawsuits from the stockholders.

I'll ask again, what would have happened if someone like Kerkorkian (sp?) would have gotten mad enough to dump his 10% or so of GM stock all at once? It would have been the straw that broke the camel's back at GM.

 

yes because their stock is doing so well otherwise

I mean, the fact they are losing sales, delphi's ready to implode , and the bankrupt possiblity wasn't enough to make stockholders sell, but a few internet users seeing a concept a few weeks early, well that was going to make them sell.

 

Aaron they still had do regardless of their current stock market situation. They acted as a business should concerning stolen property.

 

I'm tiring of re-explaining this issue...please search out Scott's responses to this debacle.

If you add up all the reasons you just listed and then add the illegal leak on top of them, it's a wonder that major stockholders have held on this long...why add to it?