Car Ads, Then and Now

When I guest lecture and/or teach one, think I try to impress upon is that the speed of communication in 2009 is changing, changing exponentially, over the way things were. Less isn’t just more, less is critical to your message. I hate to make a blanket statement, but the majority of people from my halfway-through-life age on down to especially kids these days, don’t read. It’s not that we don’t read or that nobody can anymore (many can’t but that’d be a much longer post), it’s that we’re bombarded. People don’t have to time to read ads, much less articles. There’s a reason why, while at the doctors office, WebMD, a magazine you only find in such places, instead of stories, they pretty much had snippets and soundbites, up to two or three a page. But it works, it truly does.

This isn’t a discussion about is this right or wrong, the soundbite being too short when the reality is there’s not black and white to things but shades of gray. I agree perhaps it’s a slippery slope where everything needs to be distilled into seven words, but again, to get through the clutter, it’s a necessity, unless of course, you don’t want your marketing to succeed, then by all means, write war and peace on an ad in 12 point type. people will be skipping right by you. That’s not how it’d done anymore, the motto “change or die” applies. Clients that get it, are viable, clients that don’t, nice knowin’ ya.

Anyways I’m a visuals person, so here’s some visuals. An AMC ad from the ‘73:

We won... despite this heap steering like crap!

Find yourself a time  machine and go back with $3,000 and this car can be yours, race car drivers not included. A little trivia, AMC was the first car company with a bumper-to-bumper warranty, granted it was only 12 months, but back then you could buy, say, a Chevy Vega (Worse. Car. EVER!) and, right off the lot, it would rust, overhead, and the engine would cease, but you bought it, you pay to fix it. Thank you AMC, RIP.

Balance this ad which, I could actually find PLENTY similar, some with even more words, and many with the woman being the passenger because, well, up until the late 80s, women, according to advertising it seems, couldn’t drive cars.

Toyota makes great cars, their agency makes great ads.

I’d love to pitch something like this to a client myself, only sadly most my clients wouldn’t get the power of an ad like this.

Here’s another goodie:

VW cars, tuned like a horn section.

This is a European ad, in America all the funding to real orchestras has been cut (as well as most anything to do with creativity), hence most Americans probably can’t tell these are instruments. It’s a brilliant ad though. Go Europe!

Being a fan of Audi and an ex-owner, I don’t think this is their strongest ad, but it still gets the point across:

Audi, now sadly jumping into the SUV craze.

I tried to imagine with the reluctance and conservatism of my clients, if I could do a car ad, what amount of wording could I get away with but keep it bare bones. This is the best I could come up with on a moment’s notice:

Truth in advertising for the Hummer buying segment.

Of course, truthfully, that’s too many words, only because I was trying to get my point across. Reality would be the ad would merely have the H2 and the backdrop of some rugged territory it would have been airlifted to, considering the thing could hit a sheet of paper, get stuck on it, and tip over.