Time for a helping of great pickup ads from twenty five years ago. They present the time-honored question: Ford, Dodge, Chevy or GMC?
This is perhaps one of the more memorable pickup commercials made in the 1980’s. Given it was by perennial underdog Dodge, and likely done in one take, adds to the appeal of it:
Ford, too, was hard at work climbing mountains during the 1980’s. Stay tuned for the second half as Chevrolet provides a rebuttal.
Note how Ford advertised its aerodynamics and it’s standard 300 cubic inch straight six in a 3/4 ton.
While arguably the most blunt of the lot, I am going to speculate this last commercial never aired. I am also going to speculate it is a response to the Chevrolet commercial seen above. You may want to turn the volume down – some ‘blue’ language is present!
That last one is one of my all time favorite Gag Reels.
I always loved the and the Ford goes up this hill carrying a Chevy and towing a Dodge, one of my all time favorites. The runner up has to be the one where they used a clip from the classic film Mr Majestik.
Love that pale yellow 70? F-10.
Well that last commercial was something. It would have been a bigger sale to me if they had attached headache rack, ladders, trailer filled with dirt and then taped the gas bill for the last thousand miles to the outside. In my world (AC repairman, chimney sweep and repair) that was a lot more important than towing other trucks.
Thats ok if it worked. Always knew I was different and the closest thing I had to doing anything like this was a one ton 76 chevy cube van and hauling a 16 foot trailer full of firewood. I decided then not to play with the big boys. Your profit margin went up in gas.
I can’t say which ad would have convinced me, but from personal experience in 85 and 87 Fords and an 84 Chevy, I would go Blue Oval over Bowtie. The Ford cab was a lot more comfortable and the Navistar diesels certainly got better mileage than the 350 V8. The same went for Ranger versus S10, the Iron Duke may have been a tough engine but the 80’s Ranger cab was a much nicer place to work.
By 1985 the full size Chevy was a 12 year old design which would carry on for another two years before being replaced. Dodge was even worse with run from 1972-1993.
If you want f*ckin gag reels, go see f*ckin curbside classics!
Anybody know the name of the spokeperson in that Dodge ad? I remember that guy but haven’t seem him in years.
These ads were from the peak ‘Trukwarz’ years – It was common to see a Ford vs. Chevy pickup tug-of-war (with the inevitable snapping U-joint on one or the other) at stadium racing events.
Although my Dad spent most of the 80s and 90s driving B-body wagons to tow John Deere lawn and garden tractors around, his boss occasionally snuck a truck in there when the local supply of used B-bodys was running low. My GM loving father had to admit that he generally liked the 302 Fords over the 305 Chevys in truck applications when it came to towing.
My father had all 3 at one time or the other through the 80s. The Ford and Chevy were pure lemons-the F150 lost oil pressure as he drove it off the dealer’s lots; traded it in on a C-10, hopped in it to drive away and the Chevy lost reverse! After stuff like that, we both became Dodge boys. Great ads, all. I often wondered about the trucks they dropped in those Ram ads, and what happened to them. Brutal sounds when they hit the pavement!
You know, I can well remember the day I saw my first 87 F-series, and how ugly I thought it was. I was convinced that it would be the end of Ford’s sales domination. No way would Americans buy something with a face like that! Then, in no time, the 88 C/K was out. Guys like my Dad ridiculed them for being lightweight and cheap. A buddy of mine had an 88 Chevy as a company truck. One day about ’90 we were at his house, working on a 70 C-10, and talking about how those new trucks would never last like the old ones. Looking around today, guess we were wrong on all the above counts!