I caught the #vanlife bug after a long night camping in a tent during a freezing wind storm in 2013. In the morning, my friend emerged well-rested from his 2004 Chevy Astro, named Vanny DeVito.
I began scouring Craigslist for vans, immediately. A few weeks later, I was ripping the floors out of a white 1999 AWD Astro I named Van Marino.
After a few years of adventure, I sold Van Marino to my friend Brian Ayers. We have since both wondered “Wouldn’t it be great if General Motors start making Astro’s again?”
Brian and I created a guerrilla marketing campaign to persuade GM of the notion that the world is ready now, more than ever, for a re-imagination of America’s most versatile van.
We cultivated the Astro van community – seriously, there is one – by way of Instagram-based storytelling, and created a highlight video (above) to get people talking.
Here’s what they had to say:
Car and Driver
Motor 1
WOWT-6 (Omaha’s NBC affiliate)
Omaha World-Herald
Insta: @bringbacktheastro
www.bringbacktheastro.com
Change.org petition