Myths of Main Street: What does it really mean to “Go Local”?, Written by Adam Bessi

Rudy – Cuban Gynecologist and American Autosalesman – is the latest YouTube sensation, whose unbelievably cheesy local ad for T.D.M. Auto Sales out of High Point, NC hit national fame when it was featured on Leno as a “Bad Ad.”

Rudy’s ad wasn’t designed by Rudy, but outsourced to two self-proclaimed “Internetainers”, Rhett and Link, who look as if they stepped straight out of a Mac ad on their highly polished website. The duo – who have had a TV show, and have made web videos for Taco Bell, Hummer, Cadillac, and other major, multinational corporations – appear to have a knack for getting millions of hits on YouTube, and to “entertain first, advertise second”. In other words, Rhett and Link are professional marketing humorists, who produce funny content….which also happens to really advertise products.

So what would these guerrilla marketers for major corporations want with Rudy?

While the “Internetainers” are from North Carolina – like Rudy – the ad isn’t authentically local, by their own proud admission. Rather, Rudy’s ad is part of a larger – and very successful, in terms of number of hits – ad campaign sponsored not by Rudy, but by Microbilt Corportation, who wanted a series of “intentionally ‘local’ feeling commercials (complete with bad edits and ridiculous concepts)”.

In other words, the ad is a simulation of how a local ad is – it looks like one, is for an actual small business, and Rudy really is a Cuban Gynecologist turned car dealer. Yet, unlike a “real” local ad, this one is intentionally raw and unrefined by design, like a pair of $80 ripped jeans from the Gap. Further, the ad appears not just for Rudy’s potential customers, but is designed for a national audience, to promote Microbilt – a national corporation which makes its business supporting small and medium size businesses.

And while Microbilt may encourage local business, its ad campaign vividly illustrates a real danger of the new “local” zeitgeist: “Local” is not a reality, but a feel, a style, not a substance.

Source: Dailycensored.com