By Classic Yorkshire contributor Tony Lofthouse
More and more car makers are using the internet and social media channels to sell their latest models.
But, let’s look back at bygone times when print was the main medium to get people into local showrooms.
Here are my six of the best print ads from yesteryear.
The Mini
There has been plenty of Mini adverts but in the 70s BL rolled out a series of ads that focused on the car’s small size and big punch.
They used numerous strap lines like ‘Nips in and out like Ronnie Biggs’ and memorably ‘You don’t need a big one to be happy’. The ads helped transform the Mini from being an economy car to a symbol of cool.
VW Beetle
Volkswagen often took a tongue-in-cheek approach to their advertising and none more so than in describing the Beetle in 1959 as a ‘lemon’. The ‘lemon’ in the US advert for the car referred to the chrome strip by the glove compartment that had a slight blemish in it…. apparently.
The ad copy went on to proudly say the lemon had been fixed by one of VW’s 3,389 quality control inspectors before ending with the famous line ‘We pluck the lemons, you get the plumbs’.
Skodia Fabia
It’s fair to say Skoda have been masters at tackling the challenge of the brand and the butt of many a joke in the 70s and 80s. A decade on and the self-deprecation approach to the new Fabia model was brilliantly embraced by the Czech car maker
Take a look at the Fabia and Octavia adverts and here was a company prepared to take the ‘mick out of itself’ when they knew they had a damn good product. Indeed, taking this a tasty step further, who remembers the cake ad modelled on the second generation Fabia in 2007?
It seems Skoda had the recipe right with sales in the 2000s one of the biggest success stories in motoring history.
Citroen 2CV
The French car maker would also turn to humour to push the basic appeal of the 2CV. Facing competition in the 80s here from the likes of Austin Metro, Renault 5 and the Ford Fiesta, Citroen’s ad approach focused on the 2CVs affordability and simplicity, whilst making fun of some luxury cars they shared the road with.
Peugeot 205 GTI
In a 1987 ad, Peugeot took on the notion that their cars were driven by steady, mature people with ads pushing the GTI’s performance. Cleverly, it carried the headline ‘The perfect car for anyone between 50 and 70’ with the image of a GTI overtaking at between 50 and 70 mph. This focus on performance was pure Peugeot and soon after the company would run the success slogan ‘The drive of your life’.
BMW – shaken not stirred!
In the 1980s, BMW used two glasses of water (or was it Vodka Martini!) to show the smoothness of the German motor. In the adverts one filled glass was placed on a rival 2-litre four cylinder engine and the other on a 2-litre six cylinder BMW engine to show the prowess of the latter as the content stayed still.
Don’t you miss when motoring times were so much simpler and fun too?