It’s interesting to see how manufacturers sell their top-of-the-line pieces. Some tend to stick with the history of the company, while others extol the virtues of the new models. If there is any performance heritage or proof, you’d better believe that they will use it to back up their claim…hey, win on Sunday, sell on Monday! I’m the youngest here, having been born in 1983, so my exposure to a good auto commercial is pretty much limited to the one Pontiac commercial where a sinister 1998 Trans Am makes a snack out of a poor, unsuspecting car. I was too young to see anything for 5.0 Mustangs or Grand Nationals, and Chevrolet barely advertised for the Camaro by that point in time. But in 1969, close to the zenith of the first Musclecar Era, the ads were alive and well. In this YouTube clip, we have four distinct takes on how to sell a car. First up is the 1969 Pontiac GTO “The Judge”, a car that could sell on it’s own. Take Paul Revere and the Raiders and a bit of singing, and done. Then you have the Ford Mustang Mach 1 in it’s first year of production, and Ford takes the serious road, literally letting the car sell itself while riding the then-short history of the Mustang. Up next, the Mustang’s cousin, the Mercury Cougar, and with it what was a Mercury advertising staple for years: one beautiful woman, and a mountain lion on a leash. Imagine pulling that one off in today’s society. Finally, we get the 1969 Plymouth Road Runner, in it’s second year of production. How Chrysler got Warner Brothers to agree to whip up cartoons to sell the car is beyond the scope of imagination, especially since Chrysler was already paying royalties for the name and the “Beep-Beep!” horn.
Maybe they’re on to something though, because I can’t think of a decent automobile advertisement in years that has appealed to me…
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