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Pennzoil Effort Celebrates Love Affair With Cars

Pennzoil-BThere’s no doubt that Americans love their cars. Pennzoil is the latest brand to celebrate the relationship people have with their personal transportation with a new campaign it's calling “Long Love Cars.”

Through the effort, which involves heavy social media activation as well as the sponsorship of country music star Tim McGraw, the brand looks to highlight the passion people have for their cars. With these so-called “car stories” the brand explores the meaning people have with their cars, highlighting feelings of independence, status or particular memories. 

An anthemic television commercial shows a young boy and his father working on a car, while a voiceover explains how people connect with, talk about and bond over cars. “A car is more than just a car,” the voiceover explains. “They’re part of us.”

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“People love cars; they name them, take pictures with them and form deep personal connections with them, and we want people to know they can trust Pennzoil to make exceptional motor oils because we love cars, too,” said Bree Sandlin, Pennzoil Global Brand Manager, in a statement. “The Long Love Cars campaign is a celebration of drivers and their cars. Everything we are doing this year is geared to talking about that love in bigger ways than ever before.”

A key element of this year’s campaign is enlisting McGraw as its “brand ambassador,” which will also include sponsorship of his Brothers of the Sun Tour this summer. As part of the partnership, Pennzoil will offer exclusive content from McGraw, including behind-the-scenes video from the tour as well as online promotions through the brand’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube presences. In one video on the brand’s YouTube page, McGraw shares his own car story, recalling a youth spent driving a truck through a field to a bonfire to listen to music with his friends. “What a car meant for me growing up was freedom,” he says, “freedom to go with your friends or freedom to hit the road.”

Pennzoil’s social media hubs (including Facebook and Twitter) will also serve as the center of the year’s “Long Love Cars” activation. The pages will include all of the McGraw content, as well as other content, including other people’s car stories. 

Pennzoil isn’t the first automotive-related brand to celebrate the relationship people have with their cars. Earlier this year, Subaru launched a campaign that encouraged people to tell the story of their first car, providing customized animation to go along with the story. 

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