• Ad Age, Monday, July 13, 2009 10:38 AM

No doubt that the 77-year-old Bob Lutz is a straight-shooting Detroit legend, but can he really be the change agent that General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson says he'll be? asks Jean Halliday. And does he have the energy to lead GM's marketing efforts as the company restarts its engine?

"Some believe GM needs more of an up-and-coming, digital-savvy CMO than an established Mr. Fix-It," Halliday writes. But Lutz admittedly sounds savvy as ever in an interview with Automotive News. "We're going to have design have a powerful influence on public relations and advertising and vice versa. It's really going to be, for the first time, an integrated communications approach," he says. He also promises to be more aggressive and less "defensive and risk-averse in communications."

Arthur "Bud" Liebler, former svp-marketing at Chrysler and a colleague of Lutz', doesn't know if he really understands the digital world despite having a blog. But, he says, "I don't like to second-guess Bob." In the end, Halliday concludes that if anyone who has been selling cars for 46 years can "rip up the rulebook," it's Lutz.

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