Yesterday, I shared the 1965 automotive ads from my latest purchase of 1960s Look magazines, since 1965 is one of my favorite model years and I own four ’65 model cars. Today, I’ll explore advertisements from 1964 and 1967. Although most 1960s ads pale in comparison to the beautifully illustrated ads from the 1940s and 1950s, I have a soft spot for the subject matter, as the the decade of the 1960s is easily my favorite for automobiles. We’ll begin after the jump.
We’ll begin chronologically in 1964, this Buick ad offering a colorful antithesis to their disappointing 1965 advertising campaign. The premise is that for 1964 Buick fielded a lineup of sports cars. The “Really.” on the bottom of the page echoes the tongue-in-cheek incredulity the copywriters expected you to feel. Two Wildcats, two Skylarks, and a Riviera round out the lineup of “sports cars,” although I can attest, as an owner of a ’65 Skylark Sport Coupe, that any mention of “sports car” in relation to “Skylark” is graphic evidence of expedient hyperbole in advertising. The ’64 pictured here is a beautiful car, but sporting it ain’t. The Riv, of course, is a genuine knockout in any battle of beauty. I am and always will be smitten by first-generation Rivieras.
It is somewhat more uncommon to see a Cadillac advertisement in magazines for the proletariat, such as Life and Look, but they pop up sometimes. They are always measured and subdued, and they often discuss the superior resale value of the brand with the crest. How times have changed. Cadillacs in 1964 displayed the last of the tailfins; although a vestigial remnant remained for 1965 and beyond, it could hardly be labeled as such. Almost all Cadillac road tests in the 1960s echoed the quality and superior engineering built into every Cadillac. “The Standard of the World” was not a laughable tagline then.
Oldsmobile clung to some illustrated ads for 1964, before making the switch to photography the following year. Because of this widespread adaptation of photography, 1964 is, in my mind, the last year of really breathtaking car ads (Pontiac and a few stragglers notwithstanding). This Jetstar 88 is part of an exciting winter lifestyle campaign, the perfect car to drive to the slopes. Winter-themed ads are far less common than those illustrating warmer weather, so I’m always happy to add them to my collection, even if I’m a warmer weather guy myself (largely because I get to drive my old cars and bicycles).
High on my list of favorite ads is this AC Spark Plug beauty featuring the Corvair Monza GT show car, which in reality was painted silver. This illustrates the magic of illustration; there’s no way a photograph can replicate the excitement and color of this ad.
This is the actual Monza GT, which is an exciting car from an exciting time when GM designers and engineers were excited by the Corvair and its platform. The Monza GT is actually mid-engined, and is one of many intriguing Corvair show cars from the early 1960s.
Chevy dealers weren’t ashamed of pandering for your used car dollar, and I’ve always found it dissonant that a Chevy advertisement would feature Fords, although the subliminal message here is that these Ford drivers traded these cream puffs in on new Chevrolets. Maybe you can too someday!
Ford had been using photography in advertisements prominently for quite a while by 1964. Some were good, some were bland, and this Fairlane falls somewhere in-between. Here, the ad copy attempts to sell the potential buyer on the similarity between his new mid-size hardtop and a 289 Cobra. Considering that most of these likely came with the mild two-barrel variant of the 289, that could be a stretch, but the writers were technically right!
Mercury discontinued their version of the Fairlane, the Meteor, for 1964, leaving the Comet as their bread and butter “intermediate,” even though it had long been classified as a compact. The larger ’64 did effectively take the place of the larger Meteor, and it fostered a sporting image I discussed here. I already own several ’64 Comet ads, but none as basic as this one, featuring the Comet head-on, electric razor grille and all.
Jumping ahead to 1967, we’ll begin with a staple of 1960s car advertising, Volkswagen. Most Beetle ads were black and white and basic, with the genius being in the copy, but the bus always seemed to get a splash of color. This model is likely worth many times its original purchase price today, as bus fever has taken hold of modern collectors.
Ford attempted to draw parallels between its “captive import” Cortina and the stalwart Fords of yesteryear by labeling it the “Model C.” Another ad in my collection, from 1968, pictures a Cortina in front of a distant castle, alongside a model representing Lady Godiva on her horse. Yep.
Chevrolet espoused the virtues of its factory inspection program while showing off an Impala Sport Sedan with rally wheels. Nice looking car, even if the ad pales in comparison to the Oldsmobile and AC spark plug ads above.
Buick recovered fairly well from their 1965 advertising nadir with this scenic advertisement for the GS-340, a car with only two choices of color, white or silver, both with a red stripe package. The 340 is today a little known variation of the Buick small-block that confuses casual car fans, most of whom wonder why someone would put a Mopar small-block in a Buick. The 340 was simply a 300 (itself little known) with a longer stroke and commensurately taller deck height. It lasted two years, 1966 and 1967, before being superseded by the more common Buick 350.
Finally, we’ll wrap up with a Plymouth that would eventually be propelled by an optional 340 (in 1968), the second-generation Barracuda. Although I prefer the fastback, I think all versions of the ’67 Barracuda were among Chrysler’s styling successes. This beach party scene might have been a few years behind Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, but there’s no sell-by date on a beach party, and an old Barracuda is always in style, whether or not it’s in my driveway or hanging on a wall in my house.
Thus ends Part II of my recent advertisement buying spree. Thousands of old musty magazines are filled with the handiwork of advertising giants from a golden era of advertising, but also a changing era of advertising. You can buy most of these magazines for under five dollars each, so there’s no excuse (other than the embarrassment of emulating me) to not start your own collection of ads. It will take up less space than a car collection, I assure you.
I’d love to be able to “swing” a ’64 Cadillac on my “modest budget” ! On the Plymouth ad, They had the slogan “Plymouth’s out to WIN you over.” Naturally wags rephrased it to “Plymouth’s out to RUN you over!” Love these ads!!!
The problem in the ad’s headline wasn’t gender-specific to little girls or make-specific to Caddys. Broughams made me carsick as a kid too, and it was always a happy day when someone’s went away and a Rabbit-clone showed up in its’ place (I was 5 in 1979); in those you felt the bump, once, and it was over until the next one; in the old big cars one pothole would set the car floating and bobbing for an entire block.
I got car sick a lot as a kid. I thought that I had outgrown it and then one day my wife and I went someplace with my mother. Ma asked if we could take her new Sable and she would drive. My wife and Ma were in front and I was in the backseat. I hadn’t ridden in back with Ma driving in about 25 years. After about five miles, here comes that old feeling again. She used ALL of her lane, weaving back and forth. Then she’d slow down then speed up then slow down and speed up again. That’ when I finally figured out why I got car sick as a kid. It was her driving that did it. Even after all those years.
I remember the commercials…
“Plymouth is out to win you over this year!
Follow your heart, see a Plymouth dealer today!”
When she got to the “-day” part of “today” she started singing it with middle note and then her voice rose an octave or so by the time she reached the end of the word.
I don’t remember the exact words to the parody “Plymouth is out to RUN you over” version, but I remember that at the end of it, but the word started out being sung, rose several notes, and then ended in a scream.
LOL, I’m gonna have to dig all over the innerwebs for that. I never heard the parody itself, Then too, I was a little kid… But I remember hearing people say it, and natch, I thought it was funny as hell!
If this works, it should take you to a link on “You Tube” that plays a commercial for the 1967 Plymouth Barracuda that plays the original jingle. The person who posted the video says that he thinks this version was sung by Edyie Gormet.
That’s her singing at the end of the commercial and you can see how it would lend itself to parody.
Great stuff!!! Now I need to find the parody version! Thanks!
I just remembered that in the parody version they were:
” …out to run you over this year.”
No better angle of showing the Continental’s influence on that Comet.
Yes definitely. I read the tagline before reading the rest of the ad and I immediately tried to figure out when Lincoln built a compact Continental.
+1
Another great group of ads. Wow, really loving the 61 Galaxie convertible in the Chevy Dealer’s used car lot.
And that Cadillac ad that suggests that even YOU can swing a Cadillac on a modest budget – was this the first whiff of the disease that would nearly kill Cadillac 25 years later? This is different from many of the Cadillac ads that I recall from the mid 60s, ones that featured a 2 year old model in the background to cater to the skinflints and to point out what great resale value they had.
Good point on the “value” claim. I suppose it’s always been difficult to figure out where the tipping point is between maintaining your image (because, in the end, true luxury requires exclusivity) and increasing your sales (because, profit). Though we all know which side of the fence Cadillac ended up on.
Really though that’s been a problem with so-called “luxury” goods for a long time now, oversaturation via easy credit and a willingness to produce as much as the market will bear rather than holding back supply to keep demand steady. When fresh out of business school Jenny MBA already has a BMW, three Louis Vuitton bags, and a Breitling watch, are they really luxury goods at all?
True, In the Post War era, the line between “luxury” brand and “luxury” itself have separated somewhat, In the 50s Corvette and Thunderbird were introduced by “bread and butter” brands although more Buick and Cadillac in “market”, In 1982 an “IBM-PC” (Lenovo today) was a “Premium business machine” while Apple was a “Home/School” machine. Now the highest level “luxury” car brands (Rollls Royce,Bentley) are gauche celebrity “bling” rather than being “aspirational”. Today it’s best to buy any item on specifications or actual features rather on brand, As an historical note, I believe the 1966 Cadillacs were the first to go over 200,000 in production, All that “Exclusivity” made buying A Buick Electra a sound choice for the more sensible “well to do” in the ’60s-’70s.
I like this ’65 Buick ad from Japan!
This one featuring a ’65 LeSabre, while not exactly a Buick ad, is a bit unusual!
“Nope, no tiger. You are using the wrong kind of gas.” 🙂
If you have a font with Japanese Unicode glyphs (katakana?), try hand-converting the ad copy into text, then let Google Translate have a go. Not that I’m all that good at Asian character sets, but if I get some time maybe I’ll give it a try.
I like the hybrid dealer: Cadillac-Buick Vauxhall. Now that’s not likely found in N. America!
For Obvious reasons, I imagine Buick didn’t ever market the Century in Japan.
Neil,
In the small, rural, northern Pennsylvania town I grew up in, there was indeed a Cadillac/Buick/Vauxhall dealership….of course it also included Oldsmobile.
I knew someone would refute me. Thanks!
The first 75 production Shelby Cobras used the 164 hp two-barrel 260 V8. It was still devilishly fast with that.
I can’t even wrap my brain around the 427 side oiler V8 in a Cobra. That seems like a death wish greater than the typical race car of the era. Like putting a 500 hp engine in a 1st gen Miata.
Agreed. Honestly, I don’t understand how the 427 Cobra doesn’t rank as one of the most irresponsible vehicles ever sold, right down there with Corvairs lacking rear sway bars, exploding Pintos, rollover Suzuki Samarais, and underinflated Explorer tires. A 427 Cobra with bias-ply tires, twitchy steering, touchy throttle control, and inadequate brakes was a handful for even experienced racecar drivers. To Ford’s credit, they at least did provide some kind of specific dealer driver training when it became apparent how lethal the cars could be.
Even today, drivers of the 427 Cobra’s spiritual successor, the V10 Viper, with tires, brakes, and handling more up to the task of the engine’s power, have been known to routinely crunch their expensive toys.
Then there’s the ‘ultimate’ 427 Cobra, the twin-turbocharged ‘Super Snake’, only two of which were ever built. It’s the famous car Bill Cosby talked about in his classic ‘200 MPH’ comedy routine. In reality, he only drove the car once, with his wife. It scared the daylights out of her so it was short ride, at the conclusion of which she insisted Cosby get rid of the car. It met its demise later when the last owner drove it off a cliff when the accelerator stuck wide open (some say he committed suicide).
Shelby, himself, had the other car, and there’s a story how he once floored it ‘at speed’. It was an automatic and when it kicked down, it began doing spins. Shelby was able to control it but I don’t think he drove it much after that.
A splendid, well-chosen collection of ads, Aaron – thanks for sharing them with us. I had almost forgotten about the Corvair Monza GT show car…thanks for reminding me.
Joseph, if you can ever swing a group to schedule a tour of General Motors’ Heritage Center, by all means, DO IT! The Monza GT, SS, and Super Spyder are sometimes there.
Hey, maybe that could be a Michigan meetup sometime! I think we need 15-20 to make a tour.
Aaron65: I used to paper my walls with car ads when I was a kid, probably much to my Mother’s horror. Some of the old B&W Volvo ads were my favorites. The copy always told a story about their longevity and one described, in fairy tale like prose how they lasted far longer than the new blingmobiles they shared the garage with.
I remember the 61 double page Rambler ad above my bed, and the 61 Monterey/Meteor as well.
Thanks for sharing these. Automotive advertising from past eras never gets old.
I wish I’da been able to save all the Dealer brochures I collected as a kid….
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THANK YOU for sharing these Aaron ! .
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-Nate
You’re welcome, and thanks for the words of encouragement about the transmission. It’s been running OK after my “should have been unnecessary” repairs.
Wow, that Ford 289 V8 ad is so sexist and the patriarchy seems to be reinforced with these ads. I like these ads reasonably so, but I cannot help but look at them through the perspective of 50 years of social progress.
It’s pretty tame compared to other ads of the day. I imagine though that more husbands than wives were fiscally irresponsible, “price of their toys” and all that.
Love that Barracuda. The coupe’s profile is so lithe, and so very me. If only it was a Mod Top!
Mod Top! There’s something you Don’t see every day!
There is something just so over-the-top about them that I can’t deny…
Happy to oblige:
+3!
I remember a few straggling “OK Used Cars” signs. Used car? Just OK. You really want a new one.
And that Mercury Comet is either really ugly or it’s just not a very good angle for the car.
Aaron65 – I realize that this is off-topic for this article …. but, would you happen to know where I can find that article that you wrote a while back for the Buick magazine that explains how you replaced your torque ball seal? Thank you.
It’s in (I think) the August 2009 version of the Buick Bugle (the Buick Club magazine). One thing…I made a mistake in that article; the spring and washer setup I added was only for vehicles ’52 and back. I later removed that piece because the ’53 and up cars don’t need it.
Great stuff – belated thanks! I did some sleuthing about that Buick ad.
Most of the ’64 print and TV ads we see on the web (probably from introduction) carry the tag line, “above all, it’s a Buick.”
But the TV ad about Buick’s performance in the Mobil Economy Run (held in April, 1964) ends with clips of the ’64 models over the new jingle that would be used for ’65, “Wouldn’t you Really Rather Have a Buick?”
So it looks like Buick adopted a new slogan in the middle of the ’64 model year. Based on that, I’m thinking the “Really” in that great print ad was also meant to echo the new “really rather” tag.
Again, beautiful ads, thanks!