Will potential buyers trust the "unbiased" comments aggregated by Buick's Moment of Truth campaign?

Is Buick going from grandmas to geeks?

As recently as two years ago, Buicks were primarily marketing to the blue-haired set, folks most likely to associate the term delicious with food, not a social Web site bookmarking site.

Now the reborn General Motors brand has started an Internet marketing program called “Moment of Truth” where users can visit to read what GM claims are unbiased opinions about the new Regal sedan.

The site is an online aggregator that pulls content from a variety of sources and gives consumers the ability to share it on their social networks. It includes YouTube videos, Flickr photos, comments from Buick’s facebook page, Twitter updates, as well as automotive reviews and consumer blogs.

“We are inviting consumers to find out on their own that Regal is a true performance sedan and worthy of their consideration,” said Craig Bierley, Buick advertising director.  “We are making it easy for the consumer to get unbiased opinions in one online location.”

Interspersed with the expected positive comments on Moment of Truth, such as, “I can hardly wait to turn my 2000 GS in on the new GS!” and “Helllooooooo Regal GS!” is this: “I wouldn’t RIDE in dat thang…It looks like a Voltswagon” and “look nice but not as nice as the mazad rx-7 …” (Apparently some of GM’s critics can’t type or spell).

The Regal is a small rebadged Opel Insignia, which it is claimed will battle the Acura TSX and Audi A4 in the marketplace. (See Buick Regal to be Built, Eventually, in Canada)

GM’s Regal campaign is just the latest effort by automakers to take advantage of the Web for automotive marketing campaigns – though it is by no means the first maker to see the potential payoff of the Internet’s expanding social networks.

For the last two years, Ford has been engaged in a groundbreaking campaign to promote the subcompact Fiesta, a car that would seem particularly suited to social media marketing because of the mostly young target audience.

Ford global marketing chief Jim Farley said the company is undertaking a similar campaign to explain the completely revamped Ford Explorer before it hits showrooms in six months.

Farley said social marketing has been a boon for the automaker.

“We spent 10 cents on the dollar of what we would normally spend to get that kind of awareness,” Farley said.

In fact, just about every automaker has brought social media experts on staff or signed them on as (often high-priced) contractors to craft messages reaching potential buyers in this new age of immediate information and interconnected socialization.