I’ve known for decades that the best magazines for collecting American automobile advertising are Look, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post. Magazines such as Holiday are for the highbrow collector, as one will find ads for Lincolns, Cadillacs, Thunderbirds, and Imperials far more readily than one will in the workaday periodicals. With that being said, I recently paid four dollars at a rural antique store to augment my overstuffed collection with two Look magazines from 1963. Although the ads themselves are the primary draw for someone like me, the culture that evaporated when these weekly magazines disappeared bears pondering.
I’ve long considered the apogee of automotive advertising to be 1955 to 1964, and these dates roughly coincide with the beginning of a downward trend of the weekly general interest publication. Life was the most widely read of the bunch, and as I dutifully stripped my decades old magazines of their best car art, I wondered how much culture we’ve lost as a result of the demise of the popular periodical. All of these magazines were filled with educational and cultural content; topics were broad and all-encompassing. Not only did they cover graphic images of war and political intrigue; but they also included articles on famous artists, philosophers, warriors, and movie stars; along with short stories from famous authors and discussions about religion, civil rights, theatre criticism, fashion, and much, much more. Every week, millions of Americans perused a magazine filled with thought-provoking content and iconic images of the world. Every week, Americans got an education in their own homes without having to search for it. Sure, there was some fluff, but most issues, and I’ve read hundreds of them, were far more substantive and nuanced than your average internet clickbait.
The Life cover above is a perfect example. Millions of people in America had access to an instructive, long article on Greek mythology, and it was a MULTI-PART piece. One could find similar articles about the Civil War, the Space Race, and Jesus Christ. One of my favorite articles from 1960 was titled “What is Existentialism?”
Whether or not the blurb on Ted Kennedy next to the Trojan Horse above was an example of editorializing, I’m not sure.
With the colorful pictures and interesting articles came the ads, lots and lots of them. Almost every magazine had at least a half-dozen automobile ads, along with ads for kitchenware, flooring, TV dinners, cigarettes, and liquor – so much liquor. You’d be excused for thinking that everyone in the world was a lush in the 1950s and 1960s. *Fun tagline? Tareyton Cigarettes – “Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch.” Everyone in those ads had a black eye.*
One of the best car ads from my recent purchases was the Bonneville convertible above. General Motors ran a campaign in 1963 using the header “Coming from GM…(enter phrase here) means a whole lot more,” and these ads invariably extolled the virtues of the entire GM line of cars. I have at least a half-dozen examples, my favorite showing a blue Riviera beside a lake (beauty means a whole lot more); it’s an all-timer for me. This Bonneville in the midst of a coniferous forest is now the runner up in this series.
One can’t forget the “Car of the Year,” the new Rambler Classic with its electric shaver grille and stylish owners dressed for a night out on the town. Even Rambler tried to sell a glamorous life, far from the drudgery of actual day-to-day car ownership. With that being said, wasn’t the ’63 Classic a clean design? I still like it.
Oldsmobile used a mixture of both photography and illustration through the early-to-mid 1960s, but they never pulled it off like Pontiac did (nobody pulled it off like Pontiac did). This ad for the small Cutlass, the last model before the evergreen A-Body took hold, was a little dull for my taste: I like the car, but the ad leaves me underwhelmed. It’s not colorful enough.
Here’s an example of a car that nobody wanted in an ad that catches the eye. The hapless Mercury Meteor lasted two whole model years before being unceremoniously discarded for an upgraded Comet. There was nothing wrong with the Meteor; it just seems that most people saw through its “more expensive Fairlane” suit and passed on to something else. This ad, however, is a good one: The deep reflection in front of a simple deep blue background frames this quite attractive wagon nicely, with just a hint of airbrushed sparkle from the brightwork to show that this new Meteor is “out of this world!”
And then there was Plymouth…as a fan of advertising, my opinion is that the most boring ads were produced by Chrysler Corporation in 1962 and 1963, even though the cars themselves were unique. There was an occasional winner, but this dark Fury four-door hardtop on a wet test track does not sell the lifestyle to me. It was, however, a “tiger on the road.”
Dodge didn’t do much better; the car was better than the copy in this case. There’s too much white space and small font here; most Dodge ads from 1963 looked like this.
On the other hand, this Plymouth ad is on the right track, with more color and background scenery, in addition to a story to tell that doesn’t involve “our couples retreat at the Chelsea proving grounds.” The implication? The fellas will like your new red Fury convertible, young ladies.
This GMC ad also pushed all the right buttons. It’s colorful with a mixture of photography and illustration, and it has an engine hanging out in the center of the page; plus, that big red alligator-mouthed truck takes up most of the ad. It’s bold, and that’s what people want in a truck.
Like Plymouth, Chevrolet wasn’t immune to glum, rainy settings, but this ad also tells a story: Your new inexpensive compact wagon has room for your entire growing family, Mr. Average 1960s Guy. I really like this wagon, as I do most compact wagons from the 1960s.
Compared to General Motors, Ford used advertising sparingly in the 1960s, but they had some interesting campaigns, and one of them took advantage of the Falcon’s relative success in the Rallye Monte Carlo, or Monte Carlo Rally to English speakers. Curbside readers may be aware that Ford entered souped-up Falcons in that well-respected event, of all things, in 1963 and 1964. In 1964, they earned second place, and they would have won if it weren’t for the labyrinthian and changeable rulebook cooked up by the Monegasque contingent. Ford even concocted a “Monaco Edition” Thunderbird Landau to celebrate the product tie-in. It wasn’t a bad idea, and the scenery is spectacular. Who wouldn’t want to drive their Falcon Sprint up the Col du Turini?
A car more likely found on the Col du Turini is this Renault 8. Later in the decade, Renault ads would become legitimately apologetic for the quality of imports such as the Dauphine, but that was still a few years off in 1963. I’d love a Renault 8 Gordini by the way, but the closest I’ll likely come is a scale model that sits on a shelf in my car room.
In addition to their Monaco campaign, Ford also ran this colorful ad extolling the quality construction of their entire line, including enamel paint, aluminized mufflers, stainless steel fasteners, and built-in fender wells.
AC Filters and Spark Plugs ran some fun illustrated ads as well. Insofar as that smiling drop of oil is concerned, I always wonder if it is being disingenuous. In reality, being rammed through microscopic gaps between spinning and stationary objects just to be squeezed through a hot paper filter and unceremoniously discarded in an nonenvironmental way can’t be anything to smile about.
Chevy trucks printed many of these two-page ads in 1963, showing Chevy trucks rumbling through rugged country everywhere, such as the Baja peninsula in this ad. I’ve always found there to be too much small text and too many pictures. Unlike the Dodge Dart ad, which had excessive white space, this ad doesn’t have enough. It’s busy, like the trucks it portrays.
I’ve saved my favorite ad for last, because it includes one of my favorite cars, the original Buick Riviera. One of the most beautiful American cars of all time, Buick’s advertisers were smart enough to know that they had something special in their new lineup, so most Riviera ads from 1963 to 1965 let the pictures do the talking. In the 1963 ads, most of the Rivieras were painted silver, which seems to be their signature color.
Collecting paper, like collecting old cars, comes with all sorts of pitfalls. Old magazines smell bad, they take up space, and they aren’t worth much money. Over the years, I’m sure I’ve spent thousands of dollars on them, and they will certainly be unceremoniously discarded someday when I’m gone; I might even eventually throw them away myself. There’s more to these old periodicals, however, than a pile of mold spores. There’s more than just ad collecting. These magazines now tell a story of our daily past. What concerned the average American in March 1963? What were our hobbies, fears, and triumphs? What ancient topics were we interested in? What slang words were we using? To me, and I don’t mean to be controversial, they spoke of an America that was more day-to-day literate, and I haven’t even touched on the downfall of newspapers. We often communicate in memes, quips, headlines, and photos today, and some of us may not have the attention span to read a multiple-part piece on Greek mythology.
Whether that matters or not is up to you, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the ads.
Google Books has digitized every issue of Life magazine so you don’t have to store smelly old magazines in your basement. See the link below.
https://books.google.com/books?id=N0EEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1
My parents subscribed to all three (Life, Look, and SEP), and I avidly read every issue; as a young gearhead I paid particular attention to the car ads, although I did also read the articles. My dad, although not so much of a gearhead, indulged my interest in cars to the extent of subscribing to C/D, R&T, MT, Car Life, and Sports Car Graphic for me, and taking me on a round of all of the local dealerships at new-model introduction time to collect a stack of brochures. My folks encouraged my interest in reading and in the world outside our town, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
R8!!!!! The ad was a bit of a stretch. It wasn’t the most advanced import of all. Nobody could beat Citroen. But the R8 was vastly more advanced than VW in every way except dealers.
I always enjoyed Look. It seemed more open-minded and empathetic toward ordinary people. Life seemed to be toadying up to the celebrities and politicians.
These were big magazines during the mid-20th century. They supplied the photos to go with the radio news reports. This is also the era of the movie news reels which ran weekly. However, instead of having the news presented with narration and with film, once a week in a theatre, news magazines permitted one to review weekly news when one had time, and interest in a particular event/story.
By 1972, the costs were too high for the circulation base. Television ate up the audience’s interest in news/film, and weekly news-magazine type television shows, such as “60 Minutes”, presented the printed format once found in these magazines. By the late 1970s, television had captured the audience that once purchases subscriptions to these big magazines. Time/Newsweek did a similar job as these big magazines, however, they were smaller and cost less to print. The market for these magazines was gone.
So, this is why we see such beautiful auto advertisements in these magazines. They were physically larger, permitting large photos, they reached millions of buyers every week, and they were printed in color by 1950. If one is interested in classic 20th century automobiles from the mid century era, the ads in these magazines are hard to top.
National Geographic was my magazine of choice for car ads. Though the pages were smaller the paper quality was better. The paper was thicker and maybe that made the colors more vivid. Old NGs were either cheap at a used book store or free from neighbors. I cut the ads for the cars I liked best and preferred illustrations to photographs. Several dozen still remain; they don’t smell too bad.
Nat Geo also conveniently placed all the ads at the beginning or end of the magazine. My 9-year-older brother subscribed to NG from about 1963 to 1971, and those issues were saved for decades later. Since other mags from that era were long trashed by that point, the National Geographics were where I first encountered 1960s car ads when I first paid attention to them in the late ’70s.
We also had subscriptions to Time, Life, and Look, and they were saved for about a year in the wood-and-glass enclosures at each end of the living room couch (a wonderful mid-century piece that would be valuable if we still had it). I rarely looked at them though (I say “looked at” rather than “read” because I didn’t really learn to read with any sense of comprehension until I was 13). By that time only Time was in regular print, and I only occasionally read it.
National Geographic had great car ads. As a kid I papered my bedroom with them. On occasion there were boobies to be seen too, much to the delight of bird lovers. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Thanks for providing the LIFE magazine link.
It’s amazing to have access to all that material without having to own and store the actual magazines (of which I have quite a few).
Little old me back in 1977, buying 50s-60s National Geographics, LIFE, Readers’ Digest, et. al. at garage sales for 10 cents each (and putting the car pictures in a scrapbook) would have never dreamt that such a thing would one day be possible!
You’re welcome! As nice as the link is, you can’t hang up a digitized picture. 🙂
Even before I could read I am told that I used to enjoy “Look” magazine; just for the pictures that caught my attention.
I had this November 1962 “Look” magazine ad, carefully removed from my Mother’s not-yet-read magazine (much to her displeasure), thumb-tacked to my bedroom wall for years and years.
Even at age seven I was already a confirmed car guy.
It’s now framed and on the wall of my weekend condo.
I have that ad on my wall right now!
GMTA, Aaron!
I struck much the same pose as this man when admiring my ’64 Riviera during my six years of ownership.
No words were needed for this ad.
I am another who collected those magazines and cut the ads out. It was indeed fascinating to immerse myself into the world of that period, for good or ill.
I remember reading that when John DeLorean took over at Chevrolet, he described that Division’s advertising as a confused mess, spread among multiple agencies with no real theme. They had several memorable campaigns under his leadership, like Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet.
A fine and pleasing article, Aaron!
I thoroughly enjoyed your comments and the wonderful pictures of cars that I grew up with.
Your comments on the first gen Riviera are perceptive and thoughtful. I agree with all you have said about the Riv being so special.
I recall, at age seven, asking my Father why there weren’t any words on most of the Riviera advertisements. His reply was something like: “Son, when you have a car this pretty no words are needed!”
Here is another “Look” magazine Riviera ad that was on my bedroom wall for years….decades…that now is on the wall of my weekend vacation condo.
Thanks Mark. 🙂
Count me in as another ad cutter. I pasted them up on my half of our shared bedroom wall in Iowa City shortly after arriving and discovering the ads in magazines folks were done reading.
Yes, I learned a lot about life and the world from Life, which was a favorite of mine for some time. My father subscribed to both Life and Time not long after our arrival. Life really expanded my horizons.
Nice to see the ’63 Plymouth bravely showing the disappearing driver’s backrest…more trouble to the drivers’ social image than any Nash of a certain age…
I noticed that also!
Too bad about the obligatory annual facelifts back then. That 1963 Rambler to my eye looks about as good as it would get from then on (ending of course with the homely Matador featured a few days ago on CC). The very next year, the signature “shaver grille” was rather crudely filled in.
+1. That grille ruined the car’s integrated design for 1963.
Likewise, I’ve never thought the changes made for 1963 Cutlass, pictured in the ad above, constituted an improvement to the very handsome 1962 Cutlass.
I also made scrapbooks filled with these car ads – finally thrown away when I went off to university. I especially remember the Cadillac ads featuring Van Cleef and Arpels jewelry.
Agreed, the 61-62 F-85 was the best looking of all the Y body cars, and the 63 was a real kludge-job. Then the 64 was a real sharpie again.
Time magazine, National Geographic, and the New Yorker, were in our house for perhaps all of my youth. If there were any car ads in the New Yorker in the 1960’s, they were probably for Peugeot’s,or Imperials and Cadillacs. Life was deemed too superficial and expensive, something for library visits (like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and Hot Rod). Look and especially SEP seemed like second tier versions of Life. Regardless of the source though, ads were pored over, then often cut out and taped to my bedroom walls, just like so many others seem to have done. Of the ads shown here, the Chevy truck Baja ad may not have visual zing but it’s interesting now and I think I would have liked it back then.
The glossy ads in Look and Life were my fav parts as a kid!!Still are! Notice that the windows in the Chev II Wagon are rolled down?? lolol How hard could it be raining?
Catching up on CC reading today. Great article! I share your love of getting magazines for the car ads. I would go so far as to say that I don’t consider the smell unpleasant. It probably is objectively, but the associations are so positive for me that I like it. Old books too.
Great observation that the type and depth of information casual readers were getting was remarkable and there is no equivalent today. Internet information is so siloed now, with people able to read only on topics and from perspectives they are already familiar with. The implications for society are probably pretty profound.
Thanks Jon! I don’t mind an old book smell, but the damp, moldy basement smell is not for me. 🙂