Back in 2002, I was teaching a class at Fairleigh Dickinson University (Madison, New Jersey) called Freshman Writing Workshop. Professors were always encouraged to come up with interesting topics for student writing assignments. So one semester I came up with an assignment asking students to compare the 1959 Cadillacs with their 2002 counterparts. Too bad some of you CC readers weren’t in my class!
The first thing to do is create a “prompt”–a written description of what you want the student to write about:
Original prompt, with student scratch notes.
I always like to give students a choice of topics, just in case one of them is not interesting to that individual. Then there are written sources which the student essays are based on. These are read beforehand. The student then writes the essay in class based on the sources and the prompt.
The source article for Choice #2 about the modern perils of college life was written by journalist Dan Seymour. For Choice #1, I reproduced two Cadillac magazine ads–one from 1959 which appeared in Life magazine, and one recent ad showing the 2002 Cadillac models. The idea was to compare and contrast, as described in the prompt.
The 1959 Cadillac: A New Realm of Motoring Majesty!
Close-up of ad copy
2002 Cadillacs: Break Through. The legendary bloodline is about to boil!
I think the class was split 50/50 on choosing between Cadillac Then & Now and College Life. Luckily, I saved a copy of one of the Cadillac essays, written by a student named Carlos. I probably saved this because it was one of the better ones I received:
To make this easier to read, I have typed out the text below:
Cadillac: Then and Wow
For years, Cadillac has been the car to have if you are living comfortably and want a smooth ride to wherever your destination is. The car screams luxury when you either see it on the road or are driving it yourself. Cadillac ads have been showing the car off since the early 1900s. Well, why shouldn’t they? But things sure have changed in the last forty years. In 1959, Cadillac proved to be an elegant piece of work with ads stating “A New Realm of Motoring Majesty”. In the background an elegant couple stares at the Cadillac as if they have been waiting for the car their entire lives. A car that back then was a breakthrough and now is a classic.
In 2002, Cadillac ads are very different from 1959 ads. We’re not in the rear-side wing days anymore. Now the ads state “Breakthrough”. Now with the Cadillac XLR, CTS, and Escalade, it does not matter whether you want sporty, classic luxury, or SUT (sport utility truck), Cadillac has it all. Don’t believe me? The cars are lined up in the middle of an empty desert as if to say with Cadillac, there are no limits. “Breakthrough” written down the side of the ad shows they are not afraid to let the people of today know that these cars are now. Also the font has changed in the ads the last four decades. Instead of having the word Cadillac in script to look classy, the 2002 font is bold, simple, and gets the point across with catchy statements like “Heritage Reborn”. Finally, and probably most importantly, the style of the cars has changed . . . dramatically. The new, futuristic look is in and Cadillac did a great job to make these cars look sporty, classy, and luxurious at the same time. Today’s people want the “cool” look now. Cadillac is trying to reach all people with different likes and is doing a great job at it.
Cadillacs sure have changed in the last 40 years. But the legend stays the same. These cars are made to please all drivers, and that they do. I personally love these cars and the classic Cadillacs. But to see how far Cadillac has come puts one word in my mind . . . Wow!
——o——
It may be hard to believe, but 2002 was twenty years ago. Therefore this sample essay takes on the status of a cultural, historical artifact. It shows what a typical college student of the time thought of Cadillac and its image. The reactions seem overwhelmingly positive, contrary to many who believe that young people thought of Cadillac as an “old man’s car”–not cool. Maybe Cadillac’s edgy looks and “Break Through” marketing strategy was working. Carlos and other members of the class were 18 or 19 years old in 2002, so now they’re 38 or 39. The 2002 Cadillacs will be considered antiques in five years.
So if any readers of this post want to take a stab at comparing the 1959 and 2002 Cadillacs, I’ll read your answers below. You might even get an “A” from me–some people say I’m a pretty easy grader! And Carlos, if you’re out there, I want to know–did you ever buy your dream Cadillac?
The young man’s attitudes about Cadillac in general are interesting. But I would imagine geography and background might be a factor too. He was from the northeast and Cadillacs were (I believe) far more popular in the northeast than they were in some other parts of the country, the far west especially.
Also, I think the Cadillac mystique held on longer for those raised a blue collar world, where the only exposure to the cars was either secondhand or with older models. Those in upper income areas where cars of that class were purchased may have viewed them differently.
In any case, it is interesting to read this student’s take. As for the assignment, I have to leave for work now, so I will have to take an “incomplete”. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. 2002 doesn’t seem like that long ago, but time files. Handwritten instructions and handwritten essays? Photocopied magazine ads? I don’t know the last time I’ve seen a magazine (or a photocopier, for that matter).
I’m always amused by the ignorance of youth when presented with an anachronistic object, be it a floppy disk or a rotary phone. The word “tail fin” was not in Carlos’ vocabulary (and unless you are a car nut, why would it be) so he did his best with “rear-side wing.”
I’ve had a few teachers & professors who made a profound impact on my life, and my freshman English professor was one of them. His class and his instruction were extraordinary, and developed my enthusiasm for writing. I recall a few of his writing assignments, and one was similar to this – an open-ended assignment to compare two very different things. Of course, I chose a car-related topic: comparing how clean I kept my own car to how messy a friend of mine kept his. I had fun with that assignment.
I recall two other assignment topics from that class: one was to argue for a change in a college policy of our choice (I argued for the professor to change his grading policy), and the other was to present our opinion on a contentious social or political topic of the day. On the latter, we were required to devote equal unbiased analysis to both sides of the issue, and then to convince the reader why what we believed was the right choice. That was probably the most beneficial assignment I’d received over four years at college.
Regarding these two Cadillac ads and their contrasts, what’s most striking to me is:
1) The 1959 background is cheerful and optimistic, while the 2002 desert background is stark and brutal. (I actually love desert scenery, but the contrast between these two ads fascinates me.)
2) The 1959 ad has a long paragraph of prose, written at an advanced reading level. The 2002 ad has about a dozen words.
Thanks for digging this assignment, and the essay by Carlos, out of the storage bin!
2002 I was a freshman in high school – I remember the new “art & science” look, but didn’t love it as I was hung up on the 80’s & early 90’s Cadillacs I grew up with.
My high school is about an hour and change away from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Allentown NJ – the only Cadillacs in the HS parking lot were mine (a 1984 Sedan deVille, later in senior year I inherited my paps 96 SDV), and a 2002 Escalade EXT that the son of a body shop owner (later convicted of insurance fraud – hey, this is NJ!) drove. The coveted vehicles by that time were BMW’s & Benzes, with most of the kids driving Civics or Cavaliers.
Hard to believe it’s been 20 years….tempus sure does fuguit….
Yet I’m still driving those older 80’s & 90’s Cadillacs. Some things never change!
Ah “2002”. Seems like 150 years ago now. Come to think of it, so does “2019”. Would a been an interesting paper to research.
The “59 VW beetle” vs “2002” would a been a good one too.
The ’59 Caddy was as old by the calendar then as the bustleback ’80 Seville is now. And even though average vehicle lives have risen in the meantime…the bustleback seems just as obsolete and otherworldly to me today as the ’59. Maybe even moreso: The ’59’s styling attempted to reach for the future, while the ’80 Seville reached to the past. A 45-year-old car, aping the style of cars that were 45 years old even then.
One important point supporting Carlos’ optimism in 2002 is that Cadillac appeared to have finally emerged from the darkness of the 1980s and 90s with the arrival of the new CTS and XLR, heralding its new Art and Science theme. I myself thought Cadillac had turned the corner, and this Break Through ad, first shown during the 2003 Super Bowl, confirmed it in my mind:
Alas, it was a false dawn as we know now. Cadillac’s future is still not assured.
The sad part was a college student who couldn’t figure out the 43 year span in his head–or was that your note? That and the print, not cursive, handwriting.
I see nothing wrong with a student double-checking his numbers in the margin, if he wants to do so.
And I see nothing wrong with Carlos’ handwriting. It’s legible, and has certain letters joined for speed and efficiency: What more could you want? My very own handwriting looks much the same.
I’m glad that the ridiculous, soul-crushing ritual of forced cursive is dying.
Wellsir, I’m well past my university days, and I still have to triple-check my arithmetic to make sure I’ve got it right; sometimes I even use my fingers. And if ever you have to read something I wrote by hand, you’d best hope I used printing rather than cursive. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This essay your student handed in reminds me of a lot of my own godawful writing early in university: superficial thinking; scanty analysis; inappropriate tone; scattered focus; cringeworthy attempts at being glib, etc. I would like to hope Carlos’ ability and skill improved, with your instruction as a catalyst.
There is no sense posting long comments on this site anymore. When they’re half written they evaporate.
They don’t just evaporate for no reason. I write long comments constantly, and have not had an issue except for one or two caused by my stupid fingers.
If you’re having repeated issues, you might want to consider copying your comment before you hit any buttons.
I seem to get logged out randomly, which lost me a few comments when posting until I learned to pay attention. Some auto sites now have a periodic automatic comment save like gmail’s, but you’d probably have to replace the site to do that, which might make reposting or accessing old posts difficult, two of the better things about CC.
That has nabbed me a couple of times, until I too learned to pay attention to that. If it logs off while I’m commenting, I can tell because then it asks for my email. In that situation I copy the comment, log in, and paste it back.
I enjoyed Carlos’ analysis as well as his enthusiasm for the subject. It seems to me that he actually took the assignment to heart and put some effort into it. I would imagine that most students would just take a perfunctory attitude and produce a non interesting stream of verbiage. My college writing classes were pretty dreary compared to this one. I’ve been producing an automotive blog for nine years and I see the weekly posts as writing assignments, some turn out better than others, but I produce one every week.
This is a very interesting assignment. I’m jealous I never had a teacher ask me for a short essay comparing 1959 to new Cadillacs. I might have dreamed that sometime, but woke up thinking, “yeah, right!”
Carlos’ essay may not be the finest piece of prose and scholarship ever, but I think Daniel and others are being a little harsh. For one thing, I believe Stephen said this was an in-class assignment, so students didn’t have a lot of time for deep reflection. I would expect more insight and neater presentation for a homework assignment, but this was off the cuff writing. None of the students were probably car enthusiasts to the level we would be, and they were freshmen. I dare say, freshmen today might be worse, with many of today’s college students having spent a good chunk of high school in remote-only learning.
It does go against stereotype that Carlos, a presumably typical student, had such a positive view of modern Cadillacs. I’d be curious if the other papers were also positive, and I would guess that the half the class that didn’t choose this topic had no opinion. My guess is that Carlos also didn’t have a strong opinion, he’s just an optimistic guy and was riffing off the tone of the ads.
One thing I notice about the ads, which has always bothered me about Cadillac’s 1959 ads, is the car illustrations they used. The cars themselves in person were already almost cartoonishly out of proportion with the gigantic tailfins and long rear ends. But the ads exaggerated the proportions even more. Just look at that Coupe de Ville picture, it’s bizarre! If ever there was a car that needed no promotional enhancement, the 59 Cadillac is it. For 1960, thankfully Caddy switched to photographed advertising.
I love elegant 1950’s backgrounds, but I think the 2002 is effective. Keep it simple but exotic, put the focus on the cars. Nice, clear, 3/4 photos. Many modern ads don’t do this. There’s also something to be said for letting the cars speak for themselves in the writing, too. The 1959 ad says a lot, but also doesn’t really say anything.