I thought at first that these Corvette ads were written when David E. Davis was doing them at Campbell-Ewald, but he didn’t arrive there until 1967 when he got fired from Car and Driver for one of his over-the-top flame jobs, this time on a Blaupunkt radio in a BMW 2002, which according to him “could not pick up a Manhattan station from the other side of the George Washington Bridge.”
An even greater writer was put in some time at Campbell-Ewald writing Corvette ads: Elmore Leonard. But who knows; there were others too.
They were a wee bit over my twelve year old head at the time, but I knew they were good, and largely in a class of their own.
So he got fired for telling the truth? Every Blaupunckt stereo/radio I ever owned was a pile of shit…
Yeah, seems odd, especially since Davis was otherwise enamored with the 2002 and is largely credited with BMW getting its reputation in the US as the premier sports sedan.
I bought a lower end Blau with Cassette (Seattle?) around ’82 for my Bavaria, a pair of Blau speakers and I wouldn’t mind having that in my cars today. Without a subwoofer, Dark Side of the Moon, rocked and thumped. Now the one I bought in ’08 while it said Blaupunkt, wasn’t really, and was a complete pile. But to my ears they did put out at least some good stuff. Though maybe not when original or even optional dealer equipment.
Do you mean Elmore Leonard?
That’s what I wondered too
Yes. My fingers have dyslexia sometimes.
Hmmmm. He seems to really be enjoying the contents of her shoe. As someone who has “explored all the conventional methods beforehand”, I wonder what else he has been “searching for all along”. ℹ️🤪
Drinking champagne out of ladies’ shoes and playing in fountains are stuff (rich) white people liked when drunk. Then you have to take your wet clothes off.
If they’d made a Big & Tall Corvette for pro athletes and other people over 6 feet or 200 lbs, the Escalade might never have caught on. Why hasn’t any company tried pursuing that market?
Chevrolet did cover a lot of that market. My father’s ’66 Corvette coupe fit him just fine and though slender, he was 6’5″. At 6’6″ and 260# I’m a bit bigger and it fit me just fine.
I’d love to see that woman getting in and out of that Vette.
Advertising certainly has lost a level or two of sophistication, hasn’t it?
People don’t want to read that much anymore.
That is unfortunately true.
I looked up the famous Jordan Playboy ad from 1923, which combines beautiful artwork with beautiful writing to advertise a fairly ordinary car, a first in car advertising. Turns out it was covered here. The Corvette ad writers were probably harking back to it.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/sell-the-sizzle-not-the-steak/
Michael Allen, I was going to post this, but you anticipated me. Well done. This ad appeared in the June 23, 1923 edition of the Saturday Evening Post, and was widely credited to Ned Jordan,* the entrepreneur behind the Jordan Playboy. These 173 words became so iconoclastic in the advertising business that David Ogilvy, of Ogilvy & Mather, made his new recruits memorize the ad copy word for word.
* I’m not related to Ned, we just share the same last name. But I do have a picture of my Aunt Betty behind the wheel of a ’26 Playboy at a gas station in Providence, R.I., courtesy of my dad, who was a pro photographer.
Thomas Murray was also a advertising writer for 60’s Corvettes. He was a contributing author for Car Collector magazine. His pieces were generally nostalgic, growing up in 1940’s era stories. He also wrote a book entitled “Tire Tracks Back.” A lot of his stuff is too old timey, even for me, but at times he does capture the essence of what cars mean to enthusiasts.
RE : Elmore Leonard
He’s very deft with words ~ if you’ve not yet read any of his books, treat your self .
I like the mental images this copy writing create .
-Nate
Lmao this is pretty awful writing and would get laughed out of the professional world today because of how bad it is. This is clearly written for wealthy white men in the 1960s. Glad this type of copywriting is gone.
Can’t help but agree with this.
1965..66s model corvettes for the rich.at 4500.00 in 1965..at 8k you could buy a house and a mailbox..or in 1965..you could buy a 1965 ss.327 malibu ss chevelle.for 2k and dust that plastic corvette off the highway and that booze girl friend..she needs some daisy dukes and ride in the 65 ss malibu s
Chevelle ..and..see the world in a ss chevelle and chevy 327.power…Chevrolet..ms.dinah.in 53…
Ah yes, Dinah Shore……”See the USA in your Chevrolet……..”
2K? A quick search gave me a Malibu 2dr hardtop starting at 2400 and change. Add the options and you’re closer to 3K. And the Corvette will eat the Malibu in braking and handling, while being faster.
I think you mean Campbell-Ewald.
My father was a commercial artist doing automotive work and often was on the receiving end of Ewald’s people, usually at the last minute demanding many changes to his artwork! Campbell-Ewald was a dirty word in my household growing up to be sure!
They were just marketing folks and had no idea how difficult and/or time-consuming changes to airbrushed artwork could be.
Yes I did. Thanks; fixed now.
The color of that convertible is gorgeous. I assume that was a factory color –
Times change, while sex still emphatically sells, it’s a bit different now and what was written 55 years ago wouldn’t be considered appropriate today. Nor I’m sure would what was written in 1910 have been good for ’65. But I think it was a good ad for the day.
I wanted Corvette since the master mechanic and repair shop owner across the street bought his daughter a 58 or 59 convertible in the early 60’s. When the split window was introduced, I was hooked. In 1976, I was able to buy my dream car, a 1966 427 coupe. The only mistake I made, was that I didn’t buy two big block Sting Ray plastic fantastics. Yes, I still own that coupe, and my other Chevrolets, and I have a low NCRS membership number, though I waited a year to join the National Corvette Restorers Society. God bless Zora Arkus Duntov and his trophy wife Elfie for the engineering of the of early Vette…He was way before his time, an engineering genius! Oh by the way, back when I was a pup, I bought a book that cataloged truck production numbers, year by year. General Motors Corporation with its Chevrolet and GMC light trucks out sold Ford for 35 or 38 straight years.Chevrolet outsold Ford on light truck sales for the majority of those years all by itself. It was only after Ford surpassed the GM Corporation sales record that they started the F150 best selling pickup for ? continuous years.
When GM bested them on 2 separate years, they changed the rules, and their advertising.
Cue Don Draper any one?
66 Corvette looks great. would prefer another colour for Sting Ray though.
66 is great, but I like 62, I do know where a 66 and 53, haven’t talked to him in five years, but I do know his health is not good, I’m still trying to buy them
About a year ago, The New Yorker published an excerpt from Bruce McCall’s autobiography where he talks about being a copywriter at Campbell-Ewald between 1962 and 1964. Among other things, he worked on Corvette ads.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/my-life-in-cars
I don’t see the greatness, and didn’t into the eighties when this sort of windbaggery was still going. Manly men in flash outfits standing about swigging their Corvettes and eating shotguns, whilst having their servants compare their dick sizes on plates.
Mind you, car ads have been the lowest common denominator forever, humorless and bumptious and all about selfishness. The sole and very honorable exception, of course, is the famed VW campaign in the ’60’s. In fact, name me another car ad from the past 50 years that’s not been dreary bilge.
Not, I hasten to ad, including the artwork, which was frequently pretty much art itself, and the longer ago, the better.
@ Justy ;
I have numerous late 40’s through early 50’s Chevy light truck magazine adverts that are true in every word .
I’m sure there are others but you’re right in that most vehicle adverts use psychology instead of facts to sell the product .
I’d be interested in seeing a print advert from any trade magazine for my 2001 Ford Ranger trucklet ~ it’s a cheap thing but made for work and nothing else, even the AM/FM radio was crap .
-Nate