Chevrolet trucks began its centennial celebrations this year at the Texas State Fair, but the party will extend well into 2018. There will be plenty to talk about, too, starting with the 2018 Silverado Centennial and 2018 Colorado Centennial editions, owner gatherings, and more.
However, we’re here to look back on one very familiar time period in Chevrolet truck history—when Chevy trucks were “like a rock.” The “Like a Rock” campaign spanned the 1990s and early 2000s after the brand tapped Bob Seger’s song “Like a Rock” in 1991. The final ad to feature the tagline and song aired in 2004. For over a decade, Seger and Chevrolet would be associated with one another.
The ads captured a pioneering American spirit with Chevrolet trucks at the helm of it all. Do you miss the ads? Talk to us in the comment section below, and when you’re finished here, check out 100 years of Chevy truck ads.
Comments
This was one of the best automotive marketing programs ever.
They could return to this at any time and still make s big impact.
Every time I here Bob I think Chevy.
Great song and well used.
No other truck is “LIKR A ROCK” PERIOD
Now we have those lame real people ads……
I miss the like a rock ads.
Wouldn’t be too difficult to cgi-in 2018s into classics – finding new roads for a hundred years … or leave them as-is and just sign off with that line that ties it to present day.
Some of the best GM ads ever! Why on earth did Chevy ditch Campbell Ewald their ad agency for over 90 years? Oh and those GMT 400 trucks till look better than the current ones!
Greatest commercials ever. So much better than what’s out there now. Every Chevy truck commercial of last couple years makes me vomit with disgust.
Ram now has that commercial where they pull out the old warbird for the veteran and even pull a small church with a dually. That’s right out of the Chevy playbook.
GM has had some of the best products on the market in recent years and not everybody knows about them. The marketing department is no where near it should be. It’s time for GM to step up their game!
Definitely more excitement here than in 2017: “Hey guess what, the bed is made from steel.”
Why don’t they talk about what the truck has in It? HP, TQ, PAYLOAD, TOWING, 0 TO 60, MPGS, FOR THE DIFFERENT VERSIONS?
In 2000, I was pretty much jobless, 40k in debt, and no driveable car. My Dad gave me his red short-bed 1987 Silverado 10 and I drove it for 7 years and paid off my debts and saved 35k and put 20% down on my home. After buying my house, I had $30 left to my name, but I still had my truck. I drove it to 219,986 and retired it November of 2007. They are the best and longest lasting trucks on the road!
GM as a whole had better advertising in the 1990s/early 2000s. Even the Cadillac Ads back then were something to write home about.
For recent stuff, I thought the “Strong” commercials were pretty good.
I managed the Chevy Truck account at CE during this timeframe, so I’m biased. Very warm memories of this work, as powerful today as it was then. A true partnership between our Chevrolet clients and agency personnel is what created this work, the likes of which doesn’t exist often today.
I was a outside contractor back then when a general account art director named Ted Mack developed to he Like a Rock campaign, with song. He handed a campaign storyboard to Don Gould about using it and Don told him that it wouldn’t work as there was no interest in it. A few months later, there is a meeting in the 8th floor conference room with Chevy to sign off on campaign. Ted was shell shocked and a year later he was let go.
This is the true story of what really happened.
There was a story that soon after this campaign launched in the Fall of 1991, they piped in “Like A Rock” in the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly plant for several minutes. This was when the Japanese and Germans were gaining market share and the media was crapping on GM and other domestic manufacturers. The work on the truck side was strong, but the self-image of GM worker was waning.
When Seger’s voice soared across the sound system in the plant, followed by the steel guitar riff, the workers went nuts, clapping, pumping their fists in the air – everyone was unified with a sense of pride that day in that plant.
A campaign that did much more than sell vehicles.
The concept was devised in 1990 and the campaign was released in 1991. The Like a Rock campaign would have been on the air for a while, so it makes sense to run the ad over the speakers of the assembly plant