Car advertising these days isn’t so much about selling cars; it’s about selling a lifestyle experience. Think of any current car ad on TV – they’re all pretty much the of the vehicle’s features, let alone trying to point out where and why it is a better buy than the opposition product. Maybe this is just where it’s at with cars these days: that within each market segment, the cars are all so similar that there’s no point of difference worth talking about. It wasn’t always like this, of course, and nor were car ads always as vacuous as they are today. Take a look at GM’s 1968 print ad for the new Oldsmobile 4-4-2. There’s no fake narrative trying to talk it up; they don’t even bother with a punchy catchphrase apart from ‘The hidden persuaders. There’s just a nice big picture of the car and a detailed list of stats for the 400cid V8 Olds coupe. Simply: here it is, and here’s what it’s got.
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Mar 30, 2022
1 minute
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