Sometimes its best to say nothing.
Finding the right words after a loss like yesterday may not immediately come to the fore. It would be easy to leverage an event like the passing of Prince Rogers Nelson, so treading lightly and reflecting on his death may be the best tact. Here at Corvette Online, our ears are still ringing from the news, but this morning brings a bit more clarity and perspective, as a shocking death often does.
Commensurately, when you have an pop icon who is heavily identified with your product, it’s a hard place to be. Remaining respectful during the aftershock is crucial. Chevrolet did a nice job straddling that line while acknowledging Prince and did it with a lot of class.
The campaign dropped this morning in USA Today with full page ads and is a nice simple tribute. A red ’63 split-window coupe with caption “Baby, that was much too fast…”
When it comes to the song “Little Red Corvette,” Prince and Chevy’s sports car became intertwined forever. He probably didn’t realize it when he wrote it, but he and Chevrolet would soon become bedfellows with both benefitting immensely from the connection.
When the song came out in 1982, Chevrolet had a C3 in it’s showrooms, MTV had swept the nation and Ronald Reagan was president. After yesterday, all are gone.
Maybe the best tribute for Chevy fans is to pull the ‘Vette out, (whatever color it may be,) crank “Little Red Corvette,” roll out to the highway and “let the horses run free…”
RIP Prince, thanks for the music and sharing our love of Corvettes.