Late Wednesday night, General Motors introduced America to the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado -- the dependable, all-new pickup that comes with “you know, technology and stuff.”
Forget Madison Bumgarner, the 25-year-old pitcher who had just given the San Francisco Giants their third World Series championship in five years with a dazzling Game 7 performance.
A much more unlikely hero emerged after the game, as Bumgarner collected his MVP trophy and the keys to a new truck: “Chevy Guy,” a Chevrolet zone manager from Louisburg, Kan., who accidentally became a social media sensation after stumbling through 58 seconds of can’t-look-but-can’t-look-away TV.
Struggling to read from a notecard in his hand, Chevy Guy, aka Rikk Wilde, awkwardly boasted that the Colorado offers “class-winning and -leading, um, you know, technology and stuff.”
Within an hour, “#ChevyGuy,” “#TechnologyAndStuff” and “Rikk Wilde” were among the top 10 national trending topics on Twitter. Bumgarner was not. Someone even created a parody account, @RikkWilde, which gained more than 400 followers overnight.
Later today, Chevy embraced the attention more by adding "#TechnologyAndStuff" to the Colorado page on its website. GM also tweeted that its OnStar telematics service "brings #TechnologyAndStuff to the @ChevyTrucks #Colorado and more than 30 other @GM models."
Twitter users were split on whether Chevy Guy more resembled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford or the late comedian Chris Farley (a cousin of Ford Motor Co. marketing chief Jim Farley, who might envy some of the attention Chevy is getting from this). Some expressed sympathy toward Wilde, while a few comments were inevitably mean-spirited.
Around 1:30 a.m., Chevy tried to get in on the joke with this post from its @ChevyTrucks account: “Truck yeah the 2015 #ChevyColorado has awesome #TechnologyAndStuff! You know you want a truck.”
