1989 Chevrolet Commercial – Aretha Franklin

The queen of soul sings her heart out for the heartbeat! In fall of 1986, Chevrolet introduced “The Heartbeat of America” as its full-line national campaign for 1987 models. Ad Age reported: “The pulsating, heart-like ‘Heartbeat of America’ music is used as background for emotional TV spots that are a bit spicier than Chevy’s usual apple-pie image.” The “Heartbeat” campaign went on to win more than 400 awards by 1989. The campaign was new, but the tag line was not. Jerry Burton, who today is an associate creative director at Campbell-Ewald, coined “Heartbeat of America” in 1984 for a Chevrolet brochure, and Chevy used it as a Camaro theme line under the “Today’s Chevrolet” campaign in 1985 for 1986 models.