re: Is Like a Rock the greatest TV ad campaign of all time?

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Not sure if Seger wrote it for the ad but decided to release it first or not. Sounds like an ad from the start.

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Really? Man, this was a great song, written as music, not for an ad. For many though, the ad was the first they heard of it so it will always be a jingle. Anyway, here's a summary of how it came to be in one of the most successful ad campaigns ever.

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The story goes that local advertising firm Campbell-Ewald, “was told to develop a campaign to communicate the truck’s promise of durability in a meaningful, emotional way.” One of the firm’s creative director’s heard the song while listening to Seger, as many in the Great Lake State are wont to do, and felt the song just embodied everything Chevy wanted to say was great about their trucks: that they’d still be there standing straight and bold after a day of hard work, that they’d be “carryin’ the weight,” that they were solid and tough to break – like a rock. Seger was still uncomfortable with a big corporation using one of his songs in any commercial, but as he told it, one night while hanging out in a bar in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, a guy came up to him “out of nowhere” to ask, “How come you never do any commercials for the auto companies and help us out a little bit?’ Then he walked away.”

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Before that encounter Seger had turned down more money from other companies for his songs, including Coors Beer.