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General Motors Launches ‘Life’ at Super Bowl
DETROIT – Many people watch the Super Bowl ads as much as the game. The Super Bowl is the number one spot for half-time ads. In an emotional 60-second spot aired during the first quarter of Super Bowl XLVIII,Chevrolet highlighted World Cancer Day and celebrated the disease’s survivors and those who support them.
The spot, called “Life,” encouraged viewers to change their Facebook and Twitter profiles to purple, the color of cancer survival, in time for World Cancer Day on Tuesday, February 4, 2014. Through its Purple Roads initiative, Chevrolet has committed to donate $1 per profile to the American Cancer Society – up to $1 million total – to help ensure cancer patients and their families have access to needed services –like transportation to and from cancer treatment or a free place to stay while receiving treatment away from home.
“With estimates that more than 100 million watched today’s game, we could achieve our goal with just 1 percent participation,” said Tim Mahoney, Chevrolet’s global chief marketing officer. “Most of us, including many of our employees, have been touched by cancer in some way and this spot celebrates cancer survivors and those who support them.”
The spot shows a young couple driving a Silverado pickup truck as the song “Don’t Leave,” by Norwegian singer Ane Brun, plays. The female passenger, a cancer survivor, looks out the window at the sunrise, smiles and clasps the hand of her male companion.
Kim Rhoades, who portrayed the cancer survivor, lost her mother to lung cancer. “For the entire shoot, I thought of how much I wish she could have taken a triumphant drive as a survivor,” said Rhoades. “I miss her.”
Her partner, portrayed by Ted Mattison, was a 21-year-old college student when diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, the same cancer that claimed his maternal grandmother. After six months of chemotherapy and a month of radiation, Mattison is cancer-free and grateful for today’s advances in cancer care.
Said Mattison: “I learned a lot about the preciousness of life and the importance of family and friends,” including a roommate who packed his belongings and drove them to his home hundreds of miles away.
The ad was done by Leo Burnett Detroit, the Chevrolet Silverado agency of record.
The Purple Roads initiative joins Chevrolet’s ongoing support of the American Cancer Society, including a recent $1.1 million donation on behalf of participating Chevrolet dealers to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, and 11 years of in-kind and monetary support for the Detroit Cattle Baron’s Ball.
For more information on the Purple Roads initiative and instructions on how to Purple Your Profile, visit chevy.com/purpleroads. Since the program began on January 27, more than over 250 thousand people have turned their profiles purple.