The post-war period

    

 

The post-war era saw the dawn of a new age for the motor industry and Land Rover was one of the first new vehicles to be launched. This advertisement from April 1948 was the first ad which appeared anywhere and promoted the special qualities of the new vehicle.

 

In America, a number of companies which produced armaments during the war moved into car production when the war was over. One of them was the Frazer company and this is one of their ads from 1948. 

 

Many of the main British manufacturers primarily produced cars for the export market after the war and this advertisement for the new Hillman Minx appeared in magazines in the US in 1949. 

 

Jaguar took the sporstcar market by storm from the late 1940 onwards, but also produced many high-quality luxury cars such as this Mark 5 saloon which was advertised in many "up-market" publications.

 

Many manufacturers would take out advertisements  whch stated their location at a forthcoming motor show. This Austin advertisement preceded the start of the British Motor show in London in 1950.

 

 

Distributors would often undertake their own advertising as well as the manufacturers and would often promote all (or many) of their cars in the same advert. In this US ad from the Hambro Trading Company, the MG was the most prominent car because it was the best seller, but the The Morris Minor and Riley saloon were also featured because Hambro were also responsible for their sales.
 

The success of the Land Rovers meant it wasn't long before the company was regularly taking out full-page advertisements in many of the major farming and agricultural publicatons of the period.

 

 

By the middle of the 1950s, Land Rover were also regularly using colour advertisements. 

 

As is the case today, car makers woud always benefit by getting a movie star to appear in their adverts. In this 1953 ad, Hollywood starlet Mari Aldon posed next to an MG TD.

 

Women appearing in car adverts often increase their sales. In Southern California, the local Triumph distrubutor was Dorothy Deen and she often placed herself in her cars for the adverts which were placed in the magazines. 

 

 

 

 

 

Many car makers would deliberately use colour only on the car, rather than in the whole advertisement itself to help make the car stand out. Typical is this 1954  Morris Minor advertisement.

 

Triumph were amongst the most prolific of sportscar advertisers and often used the most direct of messages.

 

Many manufacturers produced adverts which highlighted their company's heritage. This was a ploy regularly adopted by MG. Here, an MGA is being advertised, with pictures of several of the company's previous models also shown to demonstrate the lineage of the new model.

 

This is another late 1950s MGA advertisement. This time the advertisers placed a bright red heart shape in the middle of the ad to make sure the advert itself was unmissable to the reader. 

 

The development of television in the 1950s meant this became a major new advertising media for the the leading car makers. This is a still image from a Renault Dauphine TV commercial from 1958.

 

Many TV ads featured celebrities. One of the best known was Dinah Shore who worked with Chevrolet throughout the 1950s.   

 

Many of Britain's leading car makers promoted images of Britain's rich heritage when they were trying to sell their cars to overseas markets. This is a Vauxhall advertisment from 1959 with a sketch of Buckingham Palace as the backdrop.

                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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