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Chevrolet's ad executives were instrumental in campaigns that still resonate with consumers. Here, some of them, now retired from Chevy marketing, reflect on how the ideas developed.
THE HEARTBEAT OF AMERICA (1986-93)
When Dannielle Hudler (previously Colliver) began as Chevy's advertising director, the division was retiring "Today's Chevrolet" and getting ready for its next big campaign. Her only direction to Sean Fitzpatrick and Bill Ludwig, who developed the campaign at Campbell-Ewald, was to keep the all-American theme.
One theme the agency floated was "The Heartbeat of America."
"We all just liked it," she said, since it expressed the essence of Chevy.
Ludwig selected the music of composer Robin Batteau, impressed by its "anti-jingle approach."
Hudler said, "The music embodied the campaign. It would have been good, but not great, without that music."
It became so popular that a Vietnam vet asked if Hudler could send him the music so it could be played at his wedding. "That's when you know you've touched people," she said.
Jim Perkins, Chevrolet's general manager at the time, called it an "extreme ad campaign" that cut across the entire product line.
Dealers embraced it so much that they wanted the right to continue with it even after GM decided to move to another campaign. Said Perkins: "We had to put our foot down and say you can't do it."
GENUINE CHEVROLET (1994-99)
The goal was to develop an umbrella scene for the Chevy family to live under, so that each nameplate could be defined broadly in an image-based campaign, said Jim Jandasek, Chevrolet's car ad manager from 1991 to 2004.
"It was how we dealt with the product portfolio not...