JAPAN

GM Calls 2-Month Ad Campaign a Success: General Motors Corp. ended a two-month, hard-sell advertising campaign in Japan and said it changed what it called outdated Japanese stereotypes of its cars as expensive gas-guzzlers. “Please continue to compare,” said full-page newspaper ads, referring to the campaign’s theme of comparing GM and Japanese models in fuel efficiency, price, size and safety features. This kind of sales pitch is rare in Japan where car commercials usually do not mention price or specific features. Ads said registrations of new GM cars jumped 12.1% in the March-April period from a year earlier, while those of domestic and other imported cars declined. Still, the increase totaled only 203 GM cars, and the auto maker’s share of the Japanese market remains a fraction of 1%. The ad series attacked several Japanese perceptions that have hurt American car sales, such as the image that U.S. models are too big to maneuver through narrow Japanese streets and into tiny parking spaces.