General Motors Co is increasing its advertisement spending to the levels seen prior to its bankruptcy filing, Joel Ewanick, the car maker's marketing chief, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

GM is also ramping up its television ad spending for big ticket events such as the Super Bowl, according to Ewanick.

Ewanick told the Journal that GM would increase its ad spending by 3 percent to 5 percent this year.

We have to build the brands, Ewanick told the paper.

Big event advertising is part of what made this company great, Ewanick said.

Ewanick told the Journal that for the Super Bowl, GM has purchased a big ad package from News Corp's Fox and would broadcast at least two Chevy advertisements during game as well as several before and after.

Ewanick, who joined GM in May, was given free rein to shake up the carmaker's marketing strategy, which had been seen as stale.

He is viewed as a key driver in the sales success of Hyundai in the United States, where its 2009 sales rose 8 percent, while industrywide sales dropped 21 percent. Owing to the financial crisis and subsequent bankruptcy filing, GM had earlier pulled out of major advertising events, including the Super Bowl and Academy Awards.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Will Waterman)

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