How corporate capitalism buys ideology
Car culture
How corporate capitalism buys ideology
Selling the Car Culture through Advertising
| "The current American way of life is founded not just on motor transportation but on the religion of the motorcar, and the sacrifices that people are prepared to make for this religion stand outside the realm of rational criticism." --Lewis Mumford, 1963, The Highway and the City. |
In addition to forcing public dependency on automobiles by monopolizing the market for ground transport, the car corporations and their business cohorts have striven to make this imposition palatable by selling the car culture through advertising. In the United States an intensive advertising campaign has been waged for several generations-- since the 1920s-- and by now automotive ideology is ingrained in most Americans.
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| The origin of marketing... |
This page provides links to fourteen magazine advertisements for automobiles, printed between 1937 and 1992 in the National Geographic. It is probable that a survey of billboard, newspaper, radio and television ads would reflect similar ideology.
Car advertising in the 1920s and 1930s was geared toward expanding the mass market for the emerging technology of the private motor vehicle. In the same period (as we have seen) the alternatives of the electric trolley and the diesel bus were purposely degraded, making them inefficient or unavailable. So the advertising emphasis was on the practicality, service, and reliability of the automobile. An example from 1937:
| Service
& reliability |
Plymouth, "the car that stands up best" and "goes through in all kinds of weather," says rural nurse Margaret Davison. (1937 Plymouth) |
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Though it may have had some practical appeal, such an ad would hardly excite the prospective car buyer!
After the Second World War, with a deep decline in mass transit and a rapid growth in private cars, advertisements shifted away from such mundane qualities of autos. The new message: the right car can satisfy presumed or fabricated human "needs" (mostly just "wants"). Now the car as a device for getting from one place to another was rarely mentioned. Rather, the automobile had become-- and remains today-- an ethereal genie, available to satisfy a buyer's deeper desires and even dreams.
So what is an automobile? According to car-makers it is much more than mere transportation. Car advertisements have led most Americans to believe that an automobile can give them:
| Excitement | "The going's great in a 'Rocket' Hydra-Matic Oldsmobile 88." (1951 Oldsmobile 88) |
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| Success | "Meeting of Cadillac owners! Through all the higher phases of business and finance and industry, Cadillac is the overwhelming favorite. It is not at all unusual... for a fine American corporation to have its entire board membership represented on the Cadillac owner list. ...so distinguished a group of motorists." (1955 Cadillac) |
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| Power | "Call out the reserves with a touch of your toe! Ford gives you up to 225 horsepower for instant go when instants count! Get more of the lightning that's made Ford V-8 the world's favorite 'eight.' These engines pass in a wink with 'whoosh' in reserve..." (1956 Ford V-8) |
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| Status | "A discerning look at any of the nation's finer gathering places will usually reveal a surprising number of Cadillac cars… The consistent choice of those who choose without restriction. And how well they have chosen. In beauty, in luxury, in performance… Your dealer will be privileged to serve you…" (1956 Cadillac) |
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| Speed | "This baby can flick its tail at anything on the road! ...pilot her out through traffic toward the open road. ...you're driving the most exciting car in the world today. ...smooth flow of power, exciting getaway!" (1957 De Soto) |
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| Sex | "Cadillac Ladies Love to Play... This one is really fun to drive... feather light and sure to handle... smooth and effortless on the move... quick and nimble in the clutches." (1963 Cadillac) |
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| Style (and sex!) |
"...roof styling unlike any other car's. Want to top the Caprice? That's easy." (1966 Chevrolet Caprice Custom Coupe) |
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| Music | "Listen! ...a new... Stereo Tape player that adds a new dimension of pleasure to Thunderbird motoring." (1966 Ford) |
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| Bravery | "When it's steep and risky, get twice the 'hold'. ...tackle a hill... or some other danger spot. Incomparable safety and fun and adventure." (1966 Jeep Wagoneer) |
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| Seclusion & coddling |
"The daily grind. Dilemmas. Decisions. Details. Wouldn't it be nice to have an Escape Machine? What a day it's been, a real wringer. But now, thank goodness, you're ready to unwind. Enter... the car that gives you the velvet glove treatment... cradles you ever so gently... pampers you... caters to your sense of style..." (1970 Oldsmobile 98) |
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| Toughness | "Take it anywhere you want. ...it's ready for just about anything. OFF-ROAD POWER. If you're power-hungry, you've come to the right place." (1986 Dodge Power Ram 50) |
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| Romance | "We dressed in silence. And drove. Until four lanes became two. Two became one. And one became a tunnel... Something that was there before was back." (1992 Mercury Sable) |
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| Adventure | "Go where no one has gone before.. go father than all the others... A luxurious, and very personal, statement." (1992 Ford Explorer) |
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| "In short, the American has sacrificed his life as a whole to the motorcar, like someone who, demented with passion, wrecks his home in order to lavish his income on a capricious mistress who promises delights he can only occasionally enjoy." --Ivan Illich, February 1974, The Ecologist |
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| And now the news... |
Optional resources concerning selling the car culture through ads
Advertising Limbo: How Low Can They Go? -- Automobile Ads, Center for a New American Dream, March 1999 -- Includes the winner: magazine ad for Ford Ranger 4 Door Super Cab; and a runner-up: "Tread lightly and luxuriously in Lincoln Navigator, the most powerful luxury SUV on the continent."
Thomas Detwyler maintains this page (tdetwyle@uwsp.edu)
Last updated 7 February 2001
� Copyright 1998-2001 by Thomas Detwyler
