For many locals, the thought of Oxford often evokes images of lush foliage and rolling acres of wide-open, natural terrain.

People across the country now have a window into the beautiful scenery offered by Wildcat country thanks to a national ad campaign that happened because of a recommendation from Oxford resident Kevin Saulter.

Two area locations are currently being featured in a recently-aired Chevrolet commercial. They are the Addison Oaks Christmas Tree Farm, located on Lake George Rd. in Oakland Township, and a rustic log cabin home located on Maloney St. in Oxford.

For Saulter, the story began when his friend, who works in the film industry in California, spoke with him in late November about locations she was seeking for an advertising campaign to promote Chevrolet’s “employee discounts for everyone” program.

“They hired her to scout out locations to film a national Chevy ad and they told her they needed (shots of) a log cabin and a Christmas tree farm,” Saulter recalled. “My friend knew I lived in this area and has been over to my house, so she asked about it. When it came to the log cabin, I immediately thought of the home of a neighbor of mine. My friend came out, took pictures, sent them back to the producer. The producer and their crew came back out to the house and took more pictures. After talking with my neighbor, they decided to move their 70-man crew there.”

Saulter’s neighbors and the homeowners of the log cabin shown in the commercial are Paul and Julie Beebe, who moved into the home around six months ago with their two daughters, 15-year-old Jordyn and 13-year-old Caylee.

The pair happily agreed to allow their home to be used as a set for the commercial.

“There aren’t too many log cabins around this area,” said Paul Beebe. “Everybody I’ve talked to who lives in the area or who lives on the lake knows the log cabin home. They’re all a little excited about it, to be able to say ‘Those are our neighbors. We know those people’ and I think as we see more of the commercials there may be a few additional shots of the house. It’s just a good feeling and it makes you feel kind of proud, too, that they would choose your house to film.”

Prior to the shoot, the Beebes’ home was adorned with decorative snow, a set porch and Christmas decorations to give it a holiday feel.

Shots of Chevrolet employees waving excitedly to loved ones from the porch are shown in the first few seconds of the commercial.

The commercial was filmed over a 20-hour period on Nov. 19, according to Saulter, with eight of those hours being spent at the Beebes’ home.

Throughout the filming process, Paul Beebe said the whole family enjoyed the company of the crew and Chevrolet employees who were featured in the commercial.

Saulter recommended Addison Oaks Christmas Tree Farm as another filming location, which can be seen several seconds into the commercial as employees gleefully gather Christmas trees onto a cart.

Later scenes were also shot on location in Birmingham, MI.

Other shots not used in Chevrolet’s current ad were also recorded on the lake behind the Beebes’ home, which may be used in later advertisements.

“(The commercial) is all over TV, it’s at the gas station pumps… and it’s amazing… with that long amount of time that it took them to shoot the commercial… we’ve only seen the 30-second spot so far. They did some other filming and the firework(s) team is supposed to come out around Christmas. They did some testimonials with some of the employees inside of the vehicles, so I’m sure we’ll see more. But at first glance, it was amazing to see seconds of the commercial and it took eight hours to film it,” Beebe added with a laugh.

A scene of the cabin was also featured in a print advertisement, which appeared on page 17 of the Dec.13 issue of The Oxford Leader.

The full commercial is also available for viewing on Chevrolet’s official YouTube page at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c1LH_N20HY.