Images from the author’s collection. Not long ago I wrote up, for both this website and the print edition of Hemmings Classic Car, a Mercury Bobcat I had cause to photograph. It was a jaunty thing: o...
Perhaps one of the most memorable and influential ad campaigns – not just for automobiles, but of all time – was that run by DDB for Volkswagen. To get to the bottom of why it worked so well and how ...
Magazine ads courtesy of Lov2XLR8.no. When Dodge introduced its redesigned Charger for the 1968 model year, chief of design Bill Brownlie believed the sportier and more aerodynamic two-door hardtop p...
Photography by author. In “A Dog’s Life,” an episode of the classic TV show The Honeymooners, Alice adopts a dog from the pound without Ralph’s knowledge. Foraging for a snack in the icebox, neighbor...
1933 Auburn advertisement, courtesy of OldCarAdvertising.com Certain parts have entered the collective consciousness as quintessential automotive hardware above and beyond their status as original eq...
All photos are frame grabs from video below. What do a cartoon-turned-real-life locomotive, a balding man, cue ball, squirrel, white-tail deer, moose, bullet, baseball, bowling ball and what appears ...
If ever there was an era of false advertising claims, the 1950s had to be it. It seemed as if you could have said – and claimed – anything about the thingamajig you made and market it as such. Not on...
MG’s ad in the Earls Court catalogue. One of this country’s foremost historians on Classic cars, and regular contributor to Hemmings Classic Car magazine, Walt Gosden, gave me the catalogue for the 1...
1966 Mercury Comet Cyclone GT brochure from the author’s collection. Most of us wouldn’t likely equate the Comet Cyclone GT with Russian spies, but it appears that Mercury wanted viewers of this film...
Brochure images courtesy The Old Car Manual Project. If you remember the 1970s, the saying goes, you weren’t there. For those that have forgotten the start of the decade that saw the death of the mus...
Reader Gary Rynsburger sent us a link to the 1966 Chevrolet introduction video this week specifically for the camper truck chase scene toward the end, but we figured the entire thing would be worth w...
In 1958, Pontiac’s optional “Sportable” transistor AM radio could be slid out from the dash to be taken anywhere. It operated on its own batteries and had its own antenna. When it was returned to the...
1931 Chevrolet Panel Truck delivers bootlegging baking supplies to a St. Louis, Missouri bakery. Image from the writer’s collection. With prohibition, breweries like Anheuser-Busch had to figure out ...
Used car pricing from a May 1948 Minneapolis Sunday Tribune. Old newspapers have always been a great window into seeing what life was like at a time many of us weren’t even a glint in our father’s ey...
Making the rounds this week has been this Porsche-produced video targeted to the American market showing how Stuttgart built the 356. * How many times does the narrator of this early Seventies Jeep W...
Image courtesy The Old Car Manual Project. The picture tells a thousand words. Dad grins knowingly as his India Ivory over Matador Red Bel Air Sport Sedan pulls the steep grade. His wife and daughter...
All photos are frame grabs from video below. By the mid-1940s, it seems to us that most of the obvious period catch phrases had already been used up due to the prodigious number of film shorts being ...
Why do we keep showing vintage films from Bonneville? Could be the stark beauty of the salt flats. Could be the famous cars and their drivers, then just amateurs in pursuit of speed. Could be the DIY...
All photos are frame grabs from video below. Who says Jam Handy couldn’t produce a straight-forward advertisement for Chevrolet? We can debunk that myth right here: This is an eight-and-change-minute...
1974 Pontiac GTO. Still images from video below. Today, via various cell phone apps, we have access to film effects that can be added to the videos we take to make them look like overexposed, high-co...
Photo of GM ad by author. Though the Oldsmobile ad/brochure that I blogged about a few weeks ago ( Spooky 1969 Olds Literature: Dr. Oldsmobile Creates a W-Machine. Or Two. ) featured an elaborate vin...
The 1955 Meteor Rideau is a re-trimmed 1955 Ford sold as a less-expensive option at Canadian Mercury dealers. Images courtesy OldCarBrochures.com European and Asian cars have their devotees, Australi...
Print ad courtesy Production Cars.com. Formerly part of Auto Union with DKW, Horch and Wanderer, Audi didn’t (re)exist as a brand until 1969. The marque made its U.S. debut for the 1970 model year, w...
Art courtesy of the Automotive History Preservation Society. Though Oldsmobile didn’t field as many muscular models as its GM siblings Pontiac and Chevrolet, or competing automakers Ford and Chrysler...
In today’s world of meaningless and truly stupid marketing campaigns, it’s refreshing to look back at how the old Detroit PR firms promoted their clients’ products. They smartly focused on the many p...