Chevrolet Has a New Slogan: ‘Together Let’s Drive'

Chevrolet will be debuting a new corporate slogan during the first game of Major League Baseball's World Series. The decade-old "Find New Roads" will be supplanted with “Together Let’s Drive” during a commercial for the Chevy Trax that’s focused on promoting the vehicle’s affordability.

The brand has had loads of slogans and some are definitely better than others. While we’re prone toward remembering whatever jingles were playing during our formative years, the true value of specific taglines can probably be measured by how long they stuck around.

“See The USA In Your Chevrolet” ( often sang by Dinah Shore) originated in the 1950s and was still being used in the following decade while the automaker tested out “Putting You First Keeps Us First” and “It’s Exciting!”

But for every really good slogan, Chevy seems to have at least a couple of really bad ones. The 1970s saw the company trying to tweak some of the old standbys while constantly trying to insert the idea that the brand was truly American. This persisted into the 1980s and resulted in phrases such as “Building A Better Way To See The USA” or “Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie & Chevrolet.”

Things improved later in the decade when the company introduced “The Heartbeat of America” and “Rock, Flag and Eagle.” In the 1990s, Chevy struck gold with “Genuine Chevrolet” and “ Like A Rock.” These were more direct lines than what was being used before, were often accompanied by catchy music, and lasted well into the early 2000s. But it’s been a mixed bag ever since.

In the current millennium, General Motors offered up “An American Revolution” and “Our Country, My Truck.” However, both were replaced by the less popular and arguably unimaginative “America’s Best Trucks” and “May the Best Car Win.” The “Excellence for Everyone” tagline was introduced in 2010 and ended up being a total flop — encouraging Chevy to immediately pivot to “Chevy Runs Deep” until “Find New Roads” came out in 2013.

“‘Find New Roads' has been a phenomenal tagline for us. It was right for the times. It's just maybe not right for these times,” Chevy CMO Steve Majoros told the press. “We're at our best when we're reflective of — and, frankly, a driver of — culture and where consumers' minds are at.”

"Together Let’s Drive” feels very much like “Excellence for Everyone” and says very little about the brand beyond the fact that there will be driving involved. Based on reporting from Ad Age and Automotive News, General Motors marketing leadership claims the new tagline is designed to promote unity and evoke a sense of connection in transformational times.

From Automotive News:

For decades, Chevrolet has reflected changing times in its advertising, Majoros said, from the post-World War II optimism that underscored "See The USA In Your Chevrolet" to the self-reliance and dependability of its trucks that "Like A Rock" conveyed in the 1990s.

When "Find New Roads" launched in 2013, executives said it was designed to instill a sense of innovation and ingenuity as Chevrolet expanded globally and underwent a product overhaul. Today, Chevy continues to transform itself with new and redesigned internal combustion models while also developing new electric vehicles — all with an eye on how the pandemic has reshaped many consumers' lives, Majoros said.

"We're always keeping our fingers on the pulse of what's happening with customers — their worldview, how they see themselves, what worries them, what inspires them," he said. With the pandemic, "it was really time for us to take stock of that in a world where a lot has probably transformed more radically."

Majoros said work on the new campaign began about a year ago. Chevy engaged people throughout the U.S. and abroad who drive both its vehicles and other brands, and what emerged was a sense of respect and admiration for trusted institutions and a focus on friends, family and community, he said.

While we don’t know who General Motors’ marketing executives were speaking with or what mind-altering substances they might be taking, your author hasn’t noticed a surplus of “admiration for trusted institutions” lately and people seem more isolated from each other than ever before. Everything seems to be intentionally divisive these days, including General Motors’ plans to drive headlong into electrification.

The above claims also contradict Majoros’ own statements a tad. Despite earlier claims that Chevy’s marketing team found loads of establishment praise and people bent on togetherness, he also says that the new slogan is about promoting the public desire for unity and "connectedness" in a world where people feel so divided.

Having previously worked in the marketing field myself, assessing the public response to select campaigns, I can tell you they're rarely substantive. Most of the time, it all boils down to someone running with a feeling they had and then trying to convince people holding the purse to see their vision. You also never know what’s going to work until already it’s out there. Terrible slogans can be saved by implementing the right kind of music or having an engaging commercial script. The inverse is also true, with great taglines being spoiled by a poorly executed marketing campaign.

But there’s something about “Together Let’s Drive” that feels very out of touch with modern society. Corporate and governmental institutions around the globe seem to have totally lost any connection they might have formerly had with their consumer base. Though it’s not really fair to blame GM, as it didn’t come up with the new slogan. That honor belongs to Commonwealth, the automaker’s preferred advertising agency.

We’ll see if the new catchphrase catches on. After its debut this weekend, the plan is to gradually phase out "Find New Roads" and bring in “Together Let’s Drive” over the next twelve months. But it’ll be gone by Christmas if it ends up being a total disaster for Chevrolet — and that’ll depend on how it’s implemented into the relevant marketing materials and whether it resonates with prospective customers.

[Image: General Motors]

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