It’s time to give some ‘mad props’ to whomever it is that is running the marketing campaign for Chevy. With the new Camaro, the Corvette, and the slew of other well engineered and cool Chevy’s I would actually purchase new (if I were into buying new vehicles – and I’m not), and the excellent marketing they are doing, it’s hard to even remember that the only headlines with the words “Chevy” or “GM” in them were followed by the word “bailout.”
I’ve included a video of one of their most recent commercials. Actually, the version you’ve seen on TV is just 30 or 40 seconds, but this one is quit a bit longer and explains it all. In it the story of a man that used to own a ’65 Impala SS is told, and like a lot of people he sold the car at a time in his life when cash was short and family needs were high. His sons, now grown, went on a manhunt to track down their dad’s ’65 Impala for him to present it to him as a gift. After years of searching they finally found it, and in the commercial his actual reaction to seeing the car again is show. The reaction was genuine. His sons had told him that a video crew had come to shoot some footage of 3 generations of a family, so while he was aware that the cameras were there he had no idea what the real purpose of it all was until he saw the Impala!
I’m betting that a lot of you reading this can relate. At some point in your life you may have sold a car that you loved because you had to, and while your reasons for doing so were right it didn’t make it any less painful. I love that the guy’s sons did what they did – and it really goes to show that the love we have for our cars, in the end, has far more to do with the people that the cars remind us of than the joy the cars actually give us.
I’m lucky that my ’64 Chevelle never left the family, because it (and my parents that kept it for me) has had a huge influence on big moments in my life. The car is the cornerstone of my business now and is a big reason that I’m doing what I’m doing. I can only hope that should I ever have to sell it one day that my kids will get it back for me!
As a quick side note, I was contacted about a year ago by a marketing company that asked to use the picture here of my Chevelle with my mom. The picture was taken just after she bought the car in 1964. The marketing company was looking for vintage pictures to run in their commercial campaign, and it (unfortunately) didn’t make the cut. Ah well. Either way it’s another excuse for me to include the photo.
-Robert Kibbe