Starting in August, Cadillac will begin a brand retrenching operation that scraps its four-year old "Break Through" ad campaign featuring Led Zeppelin rock music in favor of a new positioning centered on the theme, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit." The campaign, which will include such untraditional media as urban wildpostings and videogames, is meant to reach consumers under 35 and women better than the GM premium brand had been doing. 

Cadillac has been hailed the last four years as arguably General Motors' best brand turnaround, a model on which plans for Buick, Pontiac , Saab, and even Chevy cars is based. But with sales down this year and a stubborn gap between Caddy's much improved product and the way many customers still view Cadillac, the company has shaken up its operations by appointing former HUMMER and Volkswagen ad director Liz Vanzura as global marketing director and hiring HUMMER agency Modernista! of Boston to replace Leo Burnett as Caddy's ad agency of record.

The new tagline, pulled right from the Declaration of Independence, says Vanzura, is meant to capture "an American spirit we have in our heritage, and the brand, but without flag-waving." The line was chosen after some 25-plus new taglines were aired in front of focus groups for reaction.

The target customers of Cadillac going forward are internally called, "Perpetual Strivers." That's really a mindset we are after across different age groups," says Modernista! executive creative director Lance Jensen. Cadillac further broke down the audience it's talking to along these lines: "Alpha Males," who come into a dealership already knowing more about performance and the hardware than the dealer; "Hot Moms," who are career women with family-care responsibilities, and independent when it comes to choosing their car without necessarily checking with her husband; and "Move Ups," who are car-buyers under the age of 35 who are already in the income range to afford a Cadillac.