Recent economic reports are claiming that there was a GDP rise in the United States in the first quarter of this year as well as in the third and fourth quarter of 2009. Technically, this means the economic recession is over, at least in the USA. Practically, it is far from being over.

Chevrolet decided to drop the advertising company Campbell-Ewald after 91 years of collaboration. This is a huge hit for the advertising company, as the contract with Chevrolet represented 25% of their business. Campbell-Ewald came up with memorable quotes like “An American Revolution”, “Like a Rock” or “The Heartbeat of America”.

The American automaker decided to ditch Campbell-Ewald in favor of Publicis Worldwide, which currently collaborates with other big names like Hewlett-Packard, Whirlpool or Coca-Cola.

This comes after Chrysler announced that they ditched the collaboration with BBDO Detroit in favor of a new advertising direction. The decision made by Chrysler forced BBDO Detroit to lay off 485 people.

After nine decades of service, Chevrolet thanked Campbell-Ewald through the voice of Jim Campbell, the US Chevrolet Marketing vice president. He continued by saying that “Over the coming months, [Chevrolet] will transition the business to Publicis Worldwide, which has recently been handling [the] car and crossover brands”.

Still, on a much smaller scale, Campbell-Ewald will continue working with General Motors. Bill Ludwig, chairman and CEO of Campbell-Ewald, has stated “We are committed to continue as one of General Motor’s family agencies and look forward to even more opportunities to demonstrate the breadth and depth of our capabilities”.

I think that Chevrolet is aiming their gun at the wrong guy (agency). Before they start cutting traditional contracts that helped them in the past century, they should start making good cars. It may sound harsh, but advertising is not enough to get people to buy your cars.