is Goodby responsible for killing Chevy?

Slow news day when story about a company wanting to change its branding hits the front page of New York Times. Or is it clever placement for a whip-smart campaign using free earned media, as Rohit Bhargava suggests it could be?

According to an internal memo leaked to the Times, Chevrolet wants you to stop calling it "Chevy." The memo was from GM to employees at Detroit headquarters: "We ask that whether you're talking to a dealer...or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet." "Swear jars" have been placed in hallways, and employees who let "Chevy" slip are expected to contribute a quarter. But, wait. Isn't Chevy one of the world's best-known product monikers, and longest lived? And isn't the trend away from proper brand names, to be more consumer-friendly and casual a la FedEx, KFC and The Shack? A GM spokesman who confirmed the memo linked the change to the recent switch from long-time ad agency Campbell-Ewald to Goodby, Silverstein (after a brief stopover at Publicis USA.) Could it be that smart cookies at Goodby "leaked" memo themselves, landing astonishingly good media coverage and generating heated convos about a brand that's been in the doldrums for years? They don't give out those Clio Lifetime Achievements for nothing.

UPDATE: Steve Hall of AdRants reports that GM has released a clarification that states the brand will not, in fact, urge people to discontinue the use of the word Chevy: We deeply appreciate the emotional connections that millions of people have for Chevrolet and its products. Pretty much plays out the way Bhargava predicted.

UPDATED UPDATE: The august Gray Lady devoted a Sunday (best-placement) editorial to Chevrolet vs. Chevy, ending with "foreigners will learn to love 'Chevy' the way Americans have ever since the company was founded in 1911." This is from a New York Times reporter? Or GM annual report?

1 day, 7 hours, 30 min, 50 seconds to save a killed idea from permanent death

You know that brilliant ad campaign you did for a client who loved it until his global manager weighed in? The amazing interactive concept you came up with that the CD in general just didn't get? The TV idea that would have gotten you to Cannes, if only cost consultants hadn't nixed the production? Now there's a way to make them live. Send them to Killed Ideas, the first awards competition for creative that never saw light of day. Steve Hall (of Adrants fame) is looking for DOA concepts not only in advertising, but graphics, industrial, package and interactive design. The best will be compiled into a book called Killed Ideas, a project of Blurb, a publisher working with artists, photographers, designers and agencies. Unlike most competitions, submissions are free. Just upload here. But hurry. Entries are due tomorrow, Tuesday, April 7th at midnight PST. (Lucky East Coast procrastinators get until 3 am) No more extensions. The fake deadline's already come and gone, sorry. If you don't make this deadline, your dead concepts will stay dead. Or sitting in a dark drawer or notebook, waiting to be revived by some other client. Same thing.