Netflix Has a New Star: Electric Vehicles, Coming to Top Shows This Year

Stranger Things has been a boon for Kate Bush’s music-streaming revenue (not to mention Eggos), while Wednesday gave a 12-year-old Lagy Gaga tune a boost in the charts. Now, the streaming service is looking at a very 2023 product-placement deal.

General Motors will supply Netflix with electric vehicles to feature in shows and movies starting with a Super Bowl commercial on Feb. 12. Over the next year, Love is Blind, Queer Eye, and Unstable will feature the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, GMC Hummer EV Pickup, and Cadillac Lyriq(Opens in a new window), respectively.

“At Netflix, we create shows and films that can influence culture and spark meaningful conversations, from the TikTok dance trends inspired by Wednesday to thoughtful discussions about climate change with Don’t Look Up,” says(Opens in a new window) Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee. “GM is a cultural leader in the auto industry and we are proud to partner with them in their efforts by amplifying the presence of electric vehicles in our shows and films.”

(Credit: Netflix)

The new deal aims to raise cultural awareness and education of electric vehicles. Executives from both companies insist the filmmakers will have creative control over how they use EVs in their productions. GM is not paying Netflix as they would for a typical ad, Marketing Dive reports(Opens in a new window).

“Entertainment has a huge impact on culture,” says(Opens in a new window) Deborah Wahl, global chief marketing officer at GM. “We want to make EVs famous on streaming, small and silver screens to build an EV culture through storytelling that incorporates the experiences of driving and owning an EV.”

The selected shows are all lighthearted, and two of them are reality TV. Similarly, the Super Bowl commercial features comedian Will Ferrell driving in GM EVs with characters from Army of the Dead, Squid Game, and more to introduce viewers to the idea of EVs in popular Netflix shows. GM released a teaser of the spot, which will run during the second quarter of the game.

Super Bowl ads are going for around $7 million(Opens in a new window) this year for a 30-second spot, a mere drop in the bucket for the billions(Opens in a new window) GM spends on advertising annually.

Netflix also agreed to improve the sustainability of its productions as part of the deal. “The company is also taking action to become more sustainable behind the camera within its productions by optimizing energy use, then electrifying it, and decarbonizing the rest,” Netflix says.

GM has already committed(Opens in a new window) to only selling zero-emissions passenger vehicles by 2035 and achieving full carbon neutrality by 2040. Although, the sustainability of the giant, 9,000-pound Hummer EV, which will be in Queer Eye this year, is suspect(Opens in a new window) given the size of its battery and quantity of materials required to produce it.

Later this year, GM will release the highly anticipated, $30,000 electric version of the Chevrolet Equinox. Next up for Netflix: cracking down on password sharing.