New voice of Chevrolet: Tim Allen

DETROIT — Chevrolet has tapped comedian Tim Allen as the voice of the brand, after more than a year of searching for a new marketing theme.

Michigan native Allen’s voice, most recently famous as that of Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s “Toy Story” movies, will debut in Chevrolet Cruze commercials that launch Tuesday, General Motors said Friday.

GM touted Allen as a car guy whose car collection includes two vehicles he helped personalize: a 1996 Chevrolet LT5 Impala SS and a 2000 Cadillac DeVille DTSi.

Allen, 57, is best known to many for his role as a tool buff and star of the TV show “Home Improvement.”

GM intends to use the Cruze, which goes on sale in mid-September, to convince customers who have flocked to Toyota and Honda that it can make a high-quality compact sedan.

The Cruze marketing campaign, titled “Accolades,” will include comparisons with competing vehicles like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla and will quote car reviewers’ praise of Chevrolet’s newest offering. Cruze will also have its own marketing tag line, Chevrolet small-car marketer Margaret Brooks said this week, although she declined to reveal the slogan.

The Cruze commercials will be the first large-scale look at Chevrolet’s new marketing plans. The brand’s marketing turmoil started last summer when the brand began publicly looking to replace its 5-year-old “American Revolution” tag line. After deciding to remain tagless, Chevrolet in April broke off a 91-year relationship with ad agency Campbell-Ewald and said it would give its advertising contract to Publicis Worldwide.

The result of that relationship was the tag line “Excellence for All,” which appeared only in print ads before U.S. marketing boss Joel Ewanick arrived in May and promptly canned the slogan. Days after arriving, he fired Publicis and chose Goodby, Silverstein & Partners as Chevrolet’s agency.

Two weeks ago, Ewanick replaced Chevrolet marketing head Jim Campbell with Ewanick’s former Hyundai colleague, Chris Perry. Perry is Chevrolet’s fourth top marketer in 13 months.

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