Return to home page

Universal Motoring History -motoring through the ages

1960s and 70s

The early years The 1920s and 30s The post-war period The 1960s and 70s The 1980s onwards

	The launch of the Mini saw a new breed of "fun" car adverts which were especially appealing for the fun-loving 1960s.
	The Volkswagen Beetle was one of the major automotive success stories of the 20th Century and in the 1960s, the company produced many imaginative and humerous ads.
	The "egg shaped" Beetle was an advert which was translated into many languages and used in newspapers and magazines around the world.
	This 1962 ad attracted attention because it featured nothing. When readers were then drawn to read the details below they got the message VW were aiming to promote.
	The Land Rover success story meant that the vehicle was being used in many different industries, a point the company began to highight in its advertising in the mid 1960s onwards.
	All car manufacturers have benefitted by the publicity their cars have received from other companies. In this advertisement from the early 1960s, a new Mini Cooper gets prominent placement as the winning prize in a national competition for a car cleaning product. As a further bonus, the advertisers use wonderfully glowing phrases to describe Mini Coopers: "cars for fast lane driving with sportscar performance and road-holding plus Mini economy. A car to dream about...a car to covet".
	Imaginative advertising usually gnerates additional sales. Here, the clever use of the picture in the circle almost presents an image of a "futuristic-like cabin" in this new Ford car -rather than what was no more than a standard front seat and dashboard.
	In the late 1960s, Ford began to use its racing success at Le Mans in some of its advertising.
	As is the case today, all the sportscar manufacturers put a lot of resources into getting success on the race track, and when their cars did win, they would advertise the fact as much as they could.
	The success of the MGB meant it was a car which was heavily advertisied in publications around the word.
	By the mid 1970s, Land Rover were aiming their cars as much towards "outdoor enthusiasts" as the farming and utilities market -typified by this Australian advertisement from 1976.
	When Triumph launched their revolutionary wedge shaped TR7 in 1975, they deliberately emphasised the new shape in everything from the headline to the logo.

!