“Dad made this ad”

That’s what my sister Piper said when I sent her an impossibly sentimental Chevy video an ex-Detroit journalist pal sent me the other day.

That our adman dad had been gone for almost 12 years now did not cause me to hesitate before texting back, “Correct.”

You see, Thomas Murray had written ads for Chevy, as a copywriter and eventually creative director for General Motors’ agency Campbell-Ewald, in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. In fact, he and his crew wrote ads for the very car that stars in this video. Of course, they were frustrated by the constraints of 30-second spots, and GM executives who were so stodgy they wouldn’t let the copywriters say, “At General Motors, we believe.” No, it had to be “General Motors believes ….”

After his advertising career, Dad wrote a monthly “nostalgia column” for Car Collector Magazine, essays collected in a book, Tire Tracks Back.

From the introduction of that book:

In 1979 I bought an old 1940 Buick Convertible Sedan. I thought I bought it because it was a car I remembered as a boy and I assumed it would be fun for the family to ride around in on hot summer nights, waving to people on the sidewalks and in other cars.

It was that, but it was a whole lot more. For what came with the car in addition to a few extra pieces of chrome trim, were all the memories of earlier years, of my mother and dad who had a car very much like it, and the girls and boys and cars and music that made those years so exciting, so painful, so happy, so devastating, so secure, so hopeful, and so short. All that history was obviously in my mind all along, but the old Buick was the focusing lens that brought it all back so clearly and colorfully and completely. And almost overwhelmingly.

And without further ado, enjoy my dad’s brand new Chevy ad. But put your top up, because it’s probably going to rain.

Hey Dad. Nice job. And thanks for visiting. Especially around this time of year, it was just great to see you again.