I found the juxtaposition of this retro-design Mark III against the stark and modern house to be a bit curious. Wouldn’t a more traditional house have been a bit more suitable? The Mark’s faux-traditional grille is somewhat comparable to a chimney on a colonial. And the Mark’s rather squashed roof and small windows are quite the contrast to the glass walls.
Not saying that an owner of a glass house might not drive a Mark, but maybe a BMW 2800 Coupe might have been a bit better of a fit.
They were already trying to attract import buyers, who were more likely to notice the house (and silly hat) before the car.
Interesting that the copy uses “Continental dealer” instead of Lincoln-Mercury. I thought that plan died years earlier.
It’s ironic how modern, sparse, boxy architecture became available to the masses in the 1950s, and was seen as upscale. At the same time the opposite was true with automobiles: The prevailing look was typically a mess of curves and excess ornamentation.
Then at some point during the 1960s the idea of an upscale car seemed to simultaneously diverge into two directions – broughams on one side, German luxury on the other.
Now we’re at a point that is almost the polar opposite of the 1950s: Our cars are typically efficient with their use of space and more cleanly styled, while the upscale McMansions that people aspire to are blanketed with all manner of fake exterior finishes and useless spaces.
I would argue that today’s automobiles follow the same pattern of the 50’s but are now a miss matched mess of geometric shapes resulting in awkward lines and excess gimmickries.
I think the squared off lines of the Mark III work well with the linear design of the home in the back ground. It’s the home and the barn behind it that don’t mesh well.
I was going to write almost the exact same thing but you beat me to it. The residential architectural world seems to be 180 degrees out of sync with automotive fashions. We got clean subtle “mid-century modern” homes the same time as chrome-washed finned-out paeans to ostentatiousness filled our garages. Then during the size-is-the-enemy ’70s, we got McMansions. Today we have unprecedented numbers of things we can put into a house, but maybe four option packages per car.
Anyway, say what you’d like about Lee, he did insist on his Mark III being the first American car to offer steel-belted radials, front disk brakes (Stude fans, we know), and antilock brakes, so he’s not solely Mr. Brougham, there’s some substance in what he was selling too.
And standard A/C.
Looks like they could have found virgin snow.
Even a black Santa hat isn’t going to make arriving at your new Mondrian house in the Mayflower any less incongruous.
I was thinking a Rip Van Winkle hat.
There’s a definite dissonance going on between the house’s design and the car’s.
There was such an odd Wyeth-esque period in advertising right around the turn of decade between ’69-’72 or so. A few other ads come to mind, but mostly I’m thinking of some of Chrysler’s brochure imagery from the time period. Stark landscapes, drably dressed models and incongruous product placement were a running theme.
They way he is holding the skies is a bit odd, almost suggestive.
Back then, people were more mature and thought nothing of it.
Today, everyone is seeking victim status.
Strictly speaking, both are retro to the same period. Bauhaus was cool around 1930, along with cars that looked like locomotives.
New houses in the ’60s were more traditional and practical, with gable roofs and distinct rooms inside. “1962 Rambler” was a popular house and a popular car.
In 1969 I thought these to be very modern, not retro at all .
What’s wrong with silly hats ? .
‘Tis the season, remember the reason.
(hint : Amazon has nothing to do with it)
-Nate
Growing up, a friend’s family (whose dad was an internationally known architect) were the only people I knew with a glass house. The father drove a Chrysler wagon.
The house next door to us when I was a kid bore a lot of similarities to the house in the Lincoln ad. It was built on the site of an older house that was demolished in the 1950s when the road was widened. It was built in the early 1960s as a square glass house, yet still surrounded by the old stone walls that were already on the property.
However, during the 1970s energy crisis, the owners covered up most of the glass windows with aluminum siding — the end result was… a box. It went from having lots of windows to having virtually none on three sides. Not terribly attractive, in my opinion. The lady who lived there drove a Monte Carlo.
Straight lines. The Lincoln front end is as rectangular as the house and Santa’s elve is gripping a straight pole (probably better not to dwell on that image).
I’ve heard of this guy. An old Chinese proverb mentions that he should not throw stones.
Love it!
A Cadillac Eldorado would be more suitable for the conditions if not the house style, with its’ front-wheel-drive.
Love the car.
Never went skiing.
Don’t care for the house.
The ad seems kinda phallic-y.
Maybe should have the Washington Monument in the background.
This background seems a bit more appropriate for a ’69 Lincoln:
IIRC, the TV Show “Dallas” didn’t happen until the 70’s. ;o)
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/features/tv-and-movies/the-cars-of-dallas-jocks-lincoln-mark-v/
^^^ Fun read by Jason Shafer if you get the chance ^^^
Looks like the perfect backdrop for a first generation Toronado, in my opinion.
Completely. Also Cadillac. GM may have inspired or copied this ad. Now I have to look…
The advertising agency’s attempt to stop the slide into senior-citizen-mobile? Which obviously didn’t work. That male model has to be at least 25 years younger than the people who were actually buying that car new.
I think this car actually snagged a pretty favorable demographic, at least away from the west coast. My father was 35 when he leased one of these in the fall of 1969. My experience at the time was that these were bought by a significantly younger person on average than the guy who chose the big Continental sedan.
W. Andrew does a pretty good job below of describing my father (except for the Playboy Magazine part). He was a kid when the real prewar Lincoln Continental was the toast of every country club, and those guys were in their 30s and 40s when these were fresh.
I think that the demographic shifted sharply older with the Mark IV due to a combination of the car, the times, and the trends towards German cars being more broadly prestigious.
#IIRC Johnny Carson had one of the first models.
GM advertised the Eldorado in the same ad as Corvette and GTO.
My memory of the two people I knew with Mark IIIs was that they were under 45.
In 1969, Caddy and Lincoln were not yet old folks cars, and the oldest Boomers were 23.
In ’69, “the Establishment” was 35 y/o and up. Imports were warming up on the coasts, but not yet in ‘flyover country’
Hi, longtime reader and lurker with finally a place to be useful (my Dad was a professional corporate photographer and ad man for 40+ years, especially for the sixties when I came into being. Also, I followed in those footsteps for quite a while before a career change )
First a tiny disagreement. In Lincolns’ opinion at this time, this was the height of modernity. The key adjective here is “stark”. A look at the ’59 Mark IV shows the sea change over a decade, all intakes and turbines and fins and cockpit. Take a ’59 and glue on wings and a rudder and honestly it wouldn’t look THAT unlike an early jet. Here, a decade later, we have slab sides, razor edges, hidden lights, and, other than required corner markers, no color other than black. The photo keys off of this sparse, monochromatic imagery, with the sharp-edged, minimalist house jutting out of the forest in the exact opposite of a Wright building (like Fallingwater). It says “We are authoritatively black! We are decisively individual! This is what your boss drives!” (See the GMC “Professional Grade” for a modern equivalent.) Now we get to imagery, and things get interesting.
The house echoes the car in several ways, and I’m quite sure the staging is all intentional. The square glass on both, the curtain in the lower left window mirrors the grille and even the finned hubcaps. I won’t argue the phallic skis, but even more so these accoutrements are “success” indicators. Now, look to the middle distance left of the house. A single figure watches. Is he/she impressed? Lincolns target consumer is a status-focused man who has no need for four doors or a wagon roof. Its all about him. I’d say the target magazine of this era might have had a bunny on it.
Just my take. It truly was the golden age of advertising, mixing art with the subliminal. Love the series on these ads!
Thank you for this perspective. It does all sort of make sense when broken down this way. Not that I didn’t “get” the intention previously, but deconstructing it makes it much more interesting.
Another who appreciates your experience and input!
At first I thought there was a lady in green with a large hat looking out a window until I zoomed in.
I suppose being mistaken for a table and lamp from afar would be not be a flattering look for a lady. But 1969 so it could have happened.
Interesting; thanks for explaining the thoughts behind the shot, which some of us obviously don’t get (myself included). And welcome. 🙂
I’d have seen the house (ahead of its time?) as spare, austere, and unornamented, while the car (while admittedly squarish) was still dripping with chrome ornamentation. A huge change from ’59 for Lincoln (and how they needed that!), but something of a step backward from, say ’61. But I think it took the Europeans another eight-ten years to reach the aesthetic point where that house already was. Detroit a bit longer.
I have to ask though, how practical is a house with a flat roof in a snowfield? 🙂
Living in the midwest US, I was thinking the same thing about the flat roof. Most buildings I’ve been in around here with a flat roof leak like a sieve in late Winter/ early Spring.
Have you ever flown over an industrial area or office park? They’re almost inevitably flat roofed. Modern membrane roofing is very effective.
Flat roofs have been around for almost forever, and making them water and snow proof is not all that difficult.
I’m not so sure of that. For many years they were a nightmare with snow melt. I’ve worked in many old buildings in Wisconsin with stained and ruined ceilings, water dripping from fluorescent light fixtures and buckets or waste baskets collecting on water scattered around the floor. The last flat roof building I worked at had diapers (as the maintenance team called them) catching water in various places. This last building was built in 1988 and had a very slight slope with drains built in. But even the drains plugged with ice and required the maintenance folks to go to the roof and shovel and clear out the drains.
I’m guessing flat roof structures are cheaper to build. But I still think they are a bad idea in the midwest.
An excellent analysis.
In the American context – the only one that matters for this car – where the nameplate has some upscale history, the sharp-edged look indeed goes with the modernity of the house.
Outside that context, the car is vastly over-dimensional and pretentious, what with that mini-Parthenon leading the coffin-hood and those Victorian parasol wheelcaps and enough stone-age engine to power a small Caribbean nation. Thought of that way, it couldn’t be more incongruous with the ultra-modernity of the house (hence my Mayflower quip).
Before anyone starts squawking in protest, I personally quite like this gen of Continental (not including the placement of the rear wheels, something’s always been NQR there), though I will admit i cannot bear the ’70’s ones that followed.
I hope he ordered the differential axle otherwise he might be stuck there until the snow melts.
Those cars had road hugging weight. He’ll be just fine. ;o)
Narrow tyres for high ground pressure to cut through the snow? Hope the house has an outside power outlet for the block heater!
My thought: it can’t be the Lincoln owner’s house, because he could just walk outside to ski. Lincoln-Guy is just visiting, but will leave after a short after-ski visit that involves sitting on hard chairs and trying to listen to John Coltrane on the stereo. He will get back in his car and return to his comfy stone tudor with the oriental rugs and drink a Manhattan while relaxing in his soft leather chair while his Irish setter dozes at his feet near the fireplace. Peggy Lee or Stan Getz will be on the stereo.
Seriously, this topic would make a great book – a look at old vehicle ads with research that identifies and tells something about the location of the background. I am betting that someone out there knows just where this building sits. At least as long as it has not been bulldozed for a shopping center or a subdivision full of retention ponds.
“…the most advanced V-8 in the automotive industry,” I mean really. Unless Maserati and Mercedes aren’t in the automotive industry?
This house immediately reminded me of “WeberHaus” who makes prefabricated houses in Germany.
The Lincoln’s design appears to be inspired by beveled glass crystals. The WeberHaus is probably more energy efficient than the Lincoln. Their houses can actually produce energy if they are equipped with solar panels and battery.
In 1969 I was thirteen and already a confirmed lover of big expensive American cars. Cadillacs and Lincolns primarily. I would allow a lowly Buick Riviera or Pontiac Grand Prix or sometimes even a T Bird to catch my eye and fancy. When I first saw the Mark III I was just floored, it just seemed to be the most elegant new American car -ever. It was the first American car to sport the Rolls Royce type grille and the fake Continental spare did not seem out of place or even mildly tacky. I was sure that I would buy one of these when it depreciated enough for me to afford it, and that it was certain to become a modern classic. It just didn’t happen, there is just not much interest in these compared to the later Mark V. My Dad had a ’63 and ’69 Lincoln sedan and I had a ’66 but I never bought a Mark III. I still like them, but I don’t like them enough to buy one. They are kind of caught in the middle, not cool vintage like the Kennedy Lincolns and not brash enough like the later Mark IV and Vs.
I still have a survivor, my dad passed on his beautiful 69 Lincoln Continental (suicide doors) dark ivy green, 460 big block, 365 hp to me. She is insured with Hagerty condition 1, 44,564 all original baby, been in the family over 52 years.
@ Lee :
Pictures or you’re nose is growing….
-Nate
Anybody under 30 years older was buying a 69 camaro.in 1969..coolest car ever..rj