General Motors’ “Reinvention” is well underway. And while its new equity campaign asks Canadians to “see, follow, join”, the auto giant may be missing a pivotal opportunity to connect with Canadians in a meaningful way.

Let’s step back and imagine the brief:

Situation: In the midst of a very public bankruptcy that will see both the Canadian and American governments take control of a diminished General Motors, massive job losses, dealer closures, and brand eliminations are capturing the lion’s share of consumer attention.

Goal: Convince consumers it’s still safe to buy/own GM products.

Target: Existing and future GM customers, males and females between 18 and 54.

How: Develop a TV ad and website to reach consumers. Use social media to connect with consumers on their terms.

Proof: Through bankruptcy-enabled restructuring, GM is rebuilding itself to be a leaner, greener and profitable company.

To that end, there is an anthemic TV spot with the obligatory on-the-mat imagery that suggests the path to Reinvention is as easy as picking up and dusting off:

The online component includes a website that’s packed with aspirational images and the promise of future innovation.

Social media brings up the rear with a decent hit of frontline personality – a nice change for this historically aloof organization. Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr – all used well enough, though by no means innovatively enough given the opportunity to lead in that space.

Then there was the poorly conceived and received “230” campaign, a “teaser” for GM’s 2010 Volt. The campaign has been widely criticized for being too obscure (not linking to product early enough), and for being a mid-stream teaser for a product they’ve already been talking about for a year.

So instead of getting “down to business”, as the campaign line suggests, this pretty much plays out as business as usual for GM.

Where are the real innovations a “Reinvention” invites? How about asking consumers to be involved in shaping the future of the company they now have a stake in? How about letting consumers vote on the direction for GM’s next ad campaign? Or better yet, how about an online platform that lets consumers have a hand in product design?

Jeremy Cato, an automotive journalist with the Globe and Mail, wrote recently that GM needs to stop focusing on products that are years down the road and start talking about products that are currently in market. Sounds like good advice.

Reinvention is a tall order, and a big promise. And it’s going to take more than Twitter feeds, obscure virals, and Facebook fan pages to dig them out of their crisis of consumer confidence.