Detroit Free Press – Chevrolet launched a new, national ad campaign Wednesday for its Silverado pickups that revives the often testy battle with crosstown rival Ford over who makes the biggest, best or toughest truck.
The ad campaign touts the results of lab tests that it says show how the Silverado’s roll-formed, high-strength steel bed suffers far less damage than the Ford F-150’s aluminum truck bed when a load of concrete blocks are dumped into the back of the trucks.
The ads debuted today with four-page wrap-around print advertisements in several major newspapers, including USA TODAY. General Motors also posted a 3-minute video that shows the cinder block demonstration with the F-150 truck bed getting gashed by the concrete blocks and the Silverado truck bed only being dented.
“Our focus is on showing that we put the customer first in everything we do. So it’s not an attack on Ford and it’s not an attack on aluminium,” Sandor Piszar, Chevrolet truck marketing director, says. “Our engineering team found that we had a competitive advantage in the strength of our bed. Really, we are compelled to get the word out.”
Piszar said the campaign is not a reaction to recent sales trends. Last month, sales of Ford’s F-Series pickups rose 9% while sales of the Silverado fell 12.7%. But year-to-date, F-Series truck sales are up 7.4% and Silverado sales are flat compared with the same period last year.
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