One thing I love about really old auto magazines is looking at the old adds in them. The articles they offered about the cars in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s where well written for the day but what I found to be great reading was the advertisements promoting all sorts of goodies to make the cars even better. It never ceases to amaze me how many people think that because these products are published in reputable magazines they must be for real. In the mean time the companies who own those magazines are thanking the powers that be for all those gullible enough believe all that hype. After all, that’s what kept those magazines in business for so many years.
All the auto magazines from the good old days are fun to look through but so are Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and believe it or not the really old National Geographic magazines have some wonderful old car advertisements too. It’s interesting to look through these old advertisements and see if any of them had any effect on today’s automotive world. Trust me… not many did.
Here is a fine example of an advertisement found in the the August 1932 edition of Popular Science.
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Gary
The wildest car ad that I’ve ever seen dates back to 1916 in the French magazine L’illustration. It’s for a Cottin & Desgouttes, showing French officers being driven past a bombed-out village … kind of like showing a brand-new Impala cruising past a war damaged town today … very very strange.
You can see it at: http://racecartoys.piczo.com/automobiliaforsaleortrade?cr=1&linkvar=000044
Marketing has change a wee bit since 1916.