Chevy Holiday Tear-Jerker Spot Produces Advertising Excellence

Chevrolet isn’t advertising in the next Super Bowl, but maybe America’s bread-and-butter brand should reconsider. Because in time for the holidays, Chevy posted a new TV commercial that’s worthy of running for a long, long time, including a shortened version in the Big Game.

The spot, which the brand titled “Family Reunion,” is an absolutely guaranteed tear-jerker, the story of an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s who is drawn out of her lonely daze by a caring granddaughter — and a Christmastime outing down memory lane in an antique Chevy Suburban.

“We’re about to enter a presidential election year, but this wasn’t about politics, which are not necessarily emotionally healthy for people,” Steve Majoros, Chevy’s chief marketing officer, told me. “Chevy is a brand that has to appeal to everyone without offending anyone. That’s a tightrope.”

But “Family Reunion” relies on “universal themes, such as generational connections, and love,” Majoros said. “That may sound corny, but I don’t care.”

Chevrolet launched a short version of the ad during NFL games on Thanksgiving weekend, but Majoros noted that the spot — which in its social-media, viral version unfolds over five minutes and 26 seconds — also has been popular in Europe and Brazil. The commercial marks the third consecutive year of Chevrolet using one of its classic models as the vehicle for telling some sort of anthemic, holiday-related story.

“All three years we’ve touched on deeply unique and universal sentiments, not just American, but global,” he said. “We don’t want to take a brand like Chevy and walk away from our dynamic history. We have the right and the credibility to tell stories like this, and we’ve got the guts to do it.”

The ad, filmed in Holly, Michigan, in exurban Detroit, depicts the story of a grandmother at Christmastime who’s marginalized in a chair, staring out, as the rest of her family more or less gives up on engaging her in the festivities. But a granddaughter, overhearing her mother and grandfather discuss her grandmother’s condition, has a better idea: Take her for a ride and try to stimulate her imagination.

So she accompanies her grandmother with her walker out to the garage, she takes the tarp off the old Suburban, and adventure ensues. The 1972-model Suburban just happens to have an eight-track player, and they plug in an old tape of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders,” which plays over the rest of the spot.

They drive past Grandmother’s old home, high school, and the drive-in where she first kissed her husband. The elderly woman comes to life and engages in memories, conversation, reconnection. By the time the two get back to the family home, everyone’s countenance has brightened.

Chevrolet produced the ad with help from the Alzheimer’s Association because the commercial underscores the challenges for sufferers of the disease, and their loved ones, especially during the winter holidays. About 6.7 million Americans aged 65 or older are living with Alzheimer’s, the association said.