Chevy Rocks the [email protected] Studios

Tuesday night Chevy rolled out the “green carpet” and put on a show aimed directly at the kids of LA. Every thing was green, green cars, green carpet and freaky tree people about on stilts. With the help of the Jonas Brothers, Disney TV kid stars and a few actors from ABC the message given to a group of 150 local kids was simple. Being green is easy. Chevrolet is taking the lead for the General with a fleet of green cars powered by a variety of energy sources. It all came together at a giant party in a circus tent at the Disney Studios in Burbank.

The local kids and their parents got to visit this huge circus tent with 5 learning modules showcasing Chevy’s fit into the greener future for the automobile. The Hybrid, Fuel Cell, E85, Electric and Fuel Management modules were under geodesic domes within the tent. After the modules and feasting they ended their evening with a 2 hour live concert with the Jonas Brothers.

Some quotes and more pics after the jump

The press conference itself was an interesting assembly line of sound bites. All the Press, some 50 of us behind a black velvet rope with 1 foot of working space lined up to get our share of the bites. The young Celebs were just as jammed and rushed single file on the other side of the rope. Obvious they were rehearsed on topics and key points to respond with.

Funny, but after a while they all blurred. In fairness I was close to the exit so those poor kids were exhausted by the time they got my way. Key phrase repeated was “reduce, reuse and recycle”.

Some of the more interesting sound bites of the evening: first up for me was Demi Lovato from Disney’s new series as the bell rings. She had this to say on the topic “I guess global warming is becoming a big topic and big companies like Chevy are starting to do something about it like switch from fossil fuels”.

Next up was David Henry “I’m here to check out the green Chevy’s; I wish a Camaro was here but it might not be green enough!” (It likely isn’t green in the V8 performance tune but it was stage left at the concert inside so he wasn’t disappointed).

Luke Perry showed up “…here because I lost a bet…” then made a quick dash to the exit.

Probably the most eloquent person interviewed was Kathy Ireland. I could have listened to her longer as she had a lot to say. Some on a global view that we all need to take, some very specific on her own companies move to living the “3 R’s”. “I am here to support Chevrolet’s Green initiatives. I see it as a revolution, not a trend and am glad to see our country make the shift. My own company recycles; a majority of our product is from environmentally sound renewable resources. Living green isn’t hard it’s simple, do the research and make wise decisions”.

The Jonas Brothers press person kept them moving and limited them to a few stops. Some of the brevity to save their voices as they had a 2 hour music event ahead of them, some because they were surround with people shouting out questions adding to the mayhem. That was a circus and I discovered that tripods are not there as a device to support cameras, rather to mark territory for the reporter and if needed become a weapon. Eh…all is fair in love, war and press conferences?

Cameras weren’t allowed in the tent with the exhibits or the concert. The concert took off with a pretty decent rendition of “Kids in America” and kept rolling. The tweenagers were screaming and squealing which can only mean that the Jonas Brothers were probably the hit of the evening.

Of the exhibits that struck me as the most interesting was the “Volt” sedan. Just a little bigger than a standard mid-size and a full plug in hybrid. Capable of running 40 miles on a single charge with a gas engine available when the batteries are low. The batteries get a full charge from a household socket in 6 hours. Really decent performance stats with 0-60 in 8.8 second, a 120mph top end, and seats 5 comfortably. The Volt could just be the ticket for my daily driving and still have the ability to take on long road trips thanks to the gas engine. First alternative fuel car yet that could really fit my needs. Could this be the first Chevy I’ve ever considered owning since I started driving?

How much of the message on protecting the environment vs corporate marketing sunk in is anyone’s guess. I suspect based on the number of Disney studio folks filming and capturing sound bites the message of the “3 R’s” is going to be streamed into our homes for months to come. Maybe this will be the catalyst to start the next green revolution for us? Worth a try?

My only disappointment for the evening is that a snafu took place with my getting shepherded into the press corral instead of the interview with Larry Burns GM’s VP of Research and Development to get his thoughts on the automobile’s place in the next 50 years with dwindling fossil fuels and an upswing in mass transit. Didn’t happen, but another day maybe? Still had fun at the press conference part, just had a few questions I wanted answered.

I have to thank a couple of people for this event. First my local PIO guy who said I wasn’t the press which led to a lot of offers of press passes. Second to Adam Denison at GM’s Social Media Communications for seeing the post, commenting I was “the media” and inviting me to attend. Special thanks to Adam as well for getting my son Mike a press pass as well…with out Mike I would not have had a clue as to who the Disney TV actors were! (I watch virtually no TV so pop culture and star stalking is over my head).

Volt pic courtesy GM web site. Remaining pics by me. You can guess which was done with the phone cam, processed with HDR file generation and of course…click away to find which get bigger. More raw images in my Chevy Rocks the Future Flickr Folder