General Motors: History, Innovation, and Tradition
Learn about General Motors’ rich history and notable innovations, from its founding in 1908 to its leadership in electric and autonomous vehicle technology.
- For the marketing team at Chevrolet, General Motors’ best-selling car brand, universality is a key decision-maker when choosing inspiration for its “Holiday Card to America” ad.
- Exploring the joys and sorrows of raising children from a mother’s perspective is heart-wrenching.
- The marketing director behind the ad, which was first launched during the coronavirus pandemic, said the aim of the ad was to uplift the mood while respecting the country’s mood.
A family road trip to a small town in the north.
This is an experience that many Americans across the country can relate to.
For the marketing team at Chevrolet, General Motors’ best-selling car brand, universality is a key decision-maker when choosing inspiration for its “Holiday Card to America” ad. This is how a family road trip (in a 1987 Chevrolet Suburban) became the backdrop for this year’s spot titled “Memory Lane.”
“Memory Lane,” which first aired this year during the Thanksgiving NFL broadcast, features the pit stops and pitfalls of family vacations. This is Chevrolet’s fifth annual seasonal ad, and it’s carefully crafted to tug at the heartstrings without being a hard sell.
Exploring the joys and heartbreaks of raising children from a mother’s perspective is truly engaging. Previously, the film featured a son driving with his father in his late grandfather’s 1987 Chevrolet pickup truck as he overcomes the pressures surrounding his decision to attend college. Another year, the spot featured a woman battling early-stage Alzheimer’s disease who still remembers riding in her 1972 Chevrolet Suburban with her granddaughter.
Featuring vintage cars serves two purposes. Chevrolet marketing leaders say this emphasizes Chevrolet’s generational brand recognition and product longevity. The vehicle serves as a stage for the company’s curated theater of memory, sadness, nostalgia and love, drafted by the brand’s creative agency and marketing team.
Steve Majoros, Chevrolet’s chief marketing officer, said the purpose of the ad, first launched during the coronavirus pandemic, is to uplift while respecting the nation’s mood, but the decision to highlight the traditional family unit this holiday season was “apolitical.”
“At Chevrolet, we have a responsibility to be a brand that is acceptable, appealing and relevant to all Americans. We are equally proud of the work we do across geographies and demographics. Identity politics and the like have little impact on what we do,” he said. “This year I was thinking about the line, ‘Together, let’s take a drive.’ We can come together as a country and try to put aside the things that get in the way and talk about and celebrate what’s important.”
first time motherhood
Another common denominator among those working on this year’s campaign? Parent-child relationship.
Chevrolet brand campaign leader Jazztan “Jazzy” Teen jumped at the chance to be a part of the campaign even before she knew she was going to become a mother.
Her due date is the first week of December.
“I hope this spot becomes popular before the baby is born,” she said. “As I create this story about preserving traditions and spending time with family…I realize how quickly time passes. If I hadn’t been pregnant, I would still look at this place and think of my mother and grandmother and the traditions around the house. But now that I’m a mother myself, I’m thinking about what I’m going to do.”
Although the spot wasn’t modeled after any particular family, the teens said in their hearts that those who saw the ad found a window into their own holiday traditions. Despite his training in storytelling and his role in crafting stories that make people cry, the teen found himself far from immune. She said that during filming, she surprised herself by crying during certain scenes.
“In the script, the mother is multitasking in the back seat trying to reach for the bottle, and that was stressful to watch,” she said. “I was thinking, “Will my husband and I be able to do that? Do we know when the baby is hungry? And I don’t want to wake up and my baby is already 18 years old. That was the moment that choked me. I don’t want it to go through the diaper stage and be all over it.”
Although GM is a global company, a significant portion of its employees live in the Detroit metropolitan area. Teen said filming took several days and spanned multiple locations in Michigan to take advantage of the landscapes the team calls most home. Filming locations include Kensington State Park in Milford, Bruce Township, Lexington, Pleasant Ridge, and more, and astute viewers will be able to spot several “Easter eggs” that further reveal the locations in which the short film is set.
In one section, the family features decorations wrapped in newspapers from the Detroit Free Press, which is kept in a cookie tin from Thunder, which is part of the USA TODAY Network. A Michigan “Mitten” ornament appeared on a tree at a Christmas tree farm where the family stopped along the way.
“I kept the Michigan mitten ornament from when we were filming,” the teen confessed. “I wanted to be able to tell my daughter one day that I was on set when she was in the womb.”
Creation of advertisements in the digital environment
The spot is one of several channels Chevrolet is using to reach and engage an increasingly digitally savvy audience. Majoros said the brand is working with more than five influencers who are Chevrolet drivers to create content about how the brand fits into their lifestyles, as well as incorporating more experiential events for Chevrolet drivers.
As part of this year’s holiday marketing drive, Chevrolet is conducting a five-city Chevrolet Holiday Magic Tour. Chevrolet’s Silverado EV pickup will travel from San Diego to Detroit for five holiday events. The fleet will arrive in San Diego on December 1st, Dallas on December 4th, Nashville on December 7th, Atlanta on December 9th, and Detroit on December 11th.
“In this day and age where content is short and fast, it’s good to take a step back. We’re not traditional flirts,” Majoros told the Free Press. “Those are very emotional purchases that people don’t buy very often. I have to explain that briefly. If you’re not in this space every day, you have to have that top of mind awareness when it comes time to think about your car.”
Part of the development will also include cinema spots. Majoros said movie theaters are the perfect place for potential customers to experience the full 3-minute, 21-second ad without distractions.
As for the advertising itself, Majoros said it’s an area the company is deliberately keeping quiet about. GM doesn’t disclose advertising costs, but he said it spent what the industry expects for high-end productions.
The spot ends strong with a series of short cuts summarizing each part of the journey, he said. It begins with the two brothers facing each other and smiling, and continues with the young men with their backs turned to each other, looking out their respective windows. That sequence ends with an empty seat, but for an empty seat star like Majoros, it was a “gut punch.”
“I remember going to Michigan State when my middle son was in first grade. The other boys had already left home. I was home alone for the first time and I just started yelling. What the hell is going on? This life is going by so quickly,” he said. “You spend about 10 years with your kids. For the first two years, you do everything you can to keep them alive, and then they leave with their friends.”
Mom’s role in holiday magic
Connor Huber, director of global brand strategy for Chevrolet, faced a similar emotional revelation when he saw the ad. Hoover, a Wisconsin native, has three children, ages 12, 9 and “almost 6.”
Hoover knew the group had found the right theme for the ad during the pitch phase. So I realized that people felt compelled to reveal the most specific details of their personal family traditions and share stories of road trips from their formative years. She recalled her childhood trekking through rural Iowa to visit her grandparents.
“I really relate to the car packing scene, when that little girl used to draw on the windows. She used to have a Walkman and wrestle in the back and read until she got car sick… There was a place along the road that helped her mark time as a child,” she said. “When I watch this movie now, I identify with the kids in a way when I used to drive every holiday, but I also relate to the adults. It reminds me of when my kids were teenagers and the trips we took to get home for the holidays.”
The decision to tell the story from the mother’s perspective was a natural one, Hoover added, speaking from her own experience.
“There’s a moment when you realize that the magic of your holiday is just your mom. I put a lot of effort into creating an experience they’ll remember, an experience they’ll remember, an experience where they know they’re loved, rather than creating a quote-unquote perfect Christmas,” she said. “For many families, mothers are the bearers of that tradition.”
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. please contact her jcharniga@freepress.com.
