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The campaign's tagline never matched the buzz created by old Chevy campaigns going back to the 1950s, such as "See the USA in your Chevrolet" sung by Dinah Shore, or more recently, Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" that epitomized the ruggedness of Chevy pickups. GM also couldn't touch Chrysler's "Imported From Detroit" campaign. The ads were part sales pitch, part rallying cry for a beleaguered Detroit, and they quickly became an Internet hit after the 2011 Super Bowl. Detroit rapper Eminem, who appeared in one of the spots, helped re-instill civic pride. The ads lasted for months after the spots aired. "Young people started to tweet `Imported From Detroit,'" Taylor says. The ads carry the message that Chrysler is back from disaster and building better cars that are cooler than imports, something the GM ads lack, Taylor says. Some of GM's ads have shown flashes of genius. During this year's Super Bowl, a Chevy ad showed a graduate ecstatic over his parents buying him a convertible Camaro. The car, it turned out, belonged to a neighbor. And the graduate's real gift was a small refrigerator. The buzz around the ad faded after the game, and the ad didn't give anyone a reason to buy a Camaro, Taylor says. "Our ads have a strong story to tell about one of GM's best product lineups in its history," spokesman Greg Martin says. The campaigns weren't the reason for Ewanick's departure, nor were his decisions to yank ads from Facebook and pull out of next year's Super Bowl, GM has said. The company will say only that he didn't meet expectations. But a person with knowledge of the matter says GM's upper management was surprised by the price tag of up to $600 million for putting Chevrolet's logo on Britain's Manchester United soccer team jerseys. Ewanick wouldn't comment on Tuesday. Now GM is looking for its fifth marketing chief in a little over three years. The timing is bad, as GM is launching new versions of two top-selling vehicles, the Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan this summer and the Silverado pickup truck next year. And the jury is still out on Ewanick's stint at GM because it takes a lot of time to measure the effect of car ads, Dominique says. "Some people would argue that there hasn't been enough time," he says. "But this is an impatient industry."
[Associated
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