Like A Rock? General Motors in the Eye of the Media (A)

By Keith Krehbiel
1994 | Case No. P9A
In 1992, General Motors Corporation struggled through rocky management shakeups and its third consecutive year of red in, One of GM’s few profitable products among its ailing North American operations were its pickups. Large pickups in the U.S. are protected from foreign competition by a 25% tariff. Great expectations for 1992 and 1993 coincided with a beefed up marketing campaign centering on the theme of “Like a Rock.” As events unfolded throughout the year and into 1993, with a petition by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall some five million Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickup trucks equipped with side-saddle gasoline tanks positioned out side the main frame rails, GM management discovered itself between a rock and a hard place.
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