General Motors DRL Commercial?

October 20, 2007 8:56 PM

90s GM TV commercial for Daytime Running Lights?

I can vividly recall seeing a commercial probably in the late 90s that showed a GM or Chevrolet truck driving around the city with its lights on and bystanders and other drivers would stop and yell out something along the lines of "Hey! Your lights are on!".

I can't seem to find any reference of this and people I have asked don't seem to remember it.

Was this real?

posted by anonymous to media & arts (10 comments total)

I definitely remember this commercial, too, though you must remember it way more clearly than I to be able to link it to GM.
posted by stargazer360 at 10:23 PM on October 20, 2007

I remember the commercial too. I remember it linked to the Pontiac Sunfire though for some reason. Maybe it's because a friend had one and it was the first time I'd seen daytime running lamps.
posted by sanka at 10:34 PM on October 20, 2007

I could swear this was a Saturn commercial. I remember the narrator saying, "So if you see someone driving around in the daytime with their lights on, don't..." and touting the safety statistics associated with having them on.
posted by kookoobirdz at 10:34 PM on October 20, 2007

I definitely remember these as a kid, and I think that they were a GM commercial, as in not just one of their brands but instead the corporation as a whole. I remember watching it and thinking "Great, everyone will think I'm an idiot."

Just so you know, Wikipedia says that GM lobbied the US government to legalize DRL in 1995 after Canada required them. So it's possible that GM doing it as a company-wide feature is very possible.
posted by ALongDecember at 10:46 PM on October 20, 2007

Oh and this thought popped into my head: the commercial may have ended with this written on the road, similar to "SLOW SCHOOL" or other writing on a road:

MOTION
IN
PEOPLE

But when read from the driver's view, it read "People in Motion." I remember being confused thinking "What does Motion in People mean?"

Apparently it was a GM slogan from the mid-90s so maybe I'm not crazy... can't believe I remember this.
posted by ALongDecember at 10:53 PM on October 20, 2007

Seconding kookoobirdz -- I'm pretty sure it was a Saturn commercial, as it (the commercial) was one of the things that got me looking at Saturns when I was shopping for a car at the time.

Here's a thread on some random forum that mentions Saturn's "stupid commercials" and the fact that they (Saturn) were touting DRLs at the time (scroll down to the comment posted 11/13/97).
posted by Doofus Magoo at 7:06 AM on October 21, 2007

Just so you know, Wikipedia says that GM lobbied the US government to legalize DRL in 1995 after Canada required them.

Wait, they weren't even legal in the US? That's insane. You should always drive with your lights on, even during the day - it increases your visibility.
posted by Dasein at 10:27 AM on October 21, 2007

Dasein,..

Actually, I think DRLs are different than normal nighttime headlights as they run dimmer so they consume less battery and they are less likely to blind oncoming drivers (Luxury car HIDs can still be piercingly bright during the day).
posted by skwillz at 11:45 AM on October 21, 2007

Yes, I think you're right, which only makes it stranger that they weren't even legal in the US - because they're hardly a risk for glare.
posted by Dasein at 3:18 PM on October 21, 2007

Well hey Saturn is a division of GM, so maybe everybody wins here.
posted by kookoobirdz at 9:44 PM on October 24, 2007