Chevrolet’s “Like A Rock” ad campaign was one of the most successful for the company and was part of a long term partnership with Campbell-Ewald advertising agency. Headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Campbell-Ewald was the agency behind the memorable campaigns of “See the USA in Your Chevrolet” and “Like a Rock” in their 90 years of work together. The agency, which has had Chevrolet business since 1919 also did Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat of America” campaign.
The “Like A Rock” campaign was the final marketing campaign for Campbell-Ewald with GM however. The automaker dropped the agency in April of 2010.
The biggest hurdle in pulling off this rock song in a commercial was convincing the artist, Bob Seger to give permission to use the song. Initially Seger refused the request but his fans wanted to know when he was going to do something for the autoworkers. After all, he was a Detroit legend. Seger relented and the crew went to work on the ad campaign. When they were finished, the song and slogan “Like A Rock” were used in Chevrolet truck commercials for more than ten years from 1991 through 2004, representing one of the longest-running advertising campaigns in history.
GM considered bringing back the “Like A Rock” slogan and tagline because of its popularity. There was no misunderstanding on what was being sold in these spots. Chevy trucks benefitted from the marketing campaign. When it comes to advertising taglines, slogans and jingles, some simply resonate with consumers while others fall flat. “Like A Rock” was one of those that hit the public right.
When it came time to select a video to represent this ad campaign, we went in a unique and different direction. This is an independently created video that represents exactly how the public felt about the Chevy truck marketing campaign.