classic-american.com 73The heavily sculpted new styling of the 1958
Lincoln included canted quad headlights and
the use of the industry’slargest powerplant,
the 430 cu in V8, which was rated at 375
horsepower.Above:LovelyJune Wilkinson was
apopular pin-up andfilm starle t,
shown hereinapublicity photo
with the Advance Muffler 1954
Chevrolet shop truck, Riverside,
CA. Her cup runneth over with
addingthe feminine touch to the
exhaust industry.Left:Introduced at the 1955
General Motors Motorama, staged
at the Pan-PacificAuditorium
on March 5, the Cadillac Sixty
Special ‘Westchester’ featured
an operating TVreceiver,tape
recorder and telephone. This was
an earlypeekinto the futureofthe
entireautomotive industry with
regardtomobile electronics.The dashboardofthe two-seat Cadillac Le Mans concept
from1953 was chock-full of gauges which wereplaced
widespread from left to right and dominated the space.
This car alsorepresented thefirst time forawrapa round
winds hieldfromCadillac’sstyling studios.Above:‘The national magazine of motoring’
is how Motor magazine, published by William
Randolph Hearst, promoted itself. This was the
January Show Issue for 1924 (420 pages), and the
cover image wasaspect acular Art Decorendering
done by artist and illustrator Clarence Coles Phillips. He
wasconsidered thefirst to introduce Art Deco styles into
the world of advertising design, and also one who popularised
‘pin-up’ girls into the mainstream. This cover wasaclassy
combination of displayinganew car andaglamourgirl all in one.
Clementeen Moore, shown herepromoting Hyvis Motor Oil in this 1932 advertisement, isaclassy
example of the use of an attractive model promotingaproduct geared forthe automotive market.
By the time the automobile was invented,it didn’ttake long for those in the advertising
business to adapt this general marketing
technique into the promotion of cars and/or car
parts, as by then it had found that the addition
of the female form to the marketing was a
successful formula. Inanutshell, it was believed:
sexdefinitelysells!
TThhiisssseerriieessooffiimmaaggeessffooccuusseessoonnWWoommeenniinnCCaarrCulture,withselectedpre-waradvertisements
andpromotionalphotographsdepictingcars
andwomenin,bytoday’sstandards,arather
innocentandnon-controversialmanner.And
then fast forward to the Seventies, Eighties and
Nineties, withafew parts ads and magazine
covers added as well.
However,the question has to be asked: was
the use of the female forms in automobile
advertisements in realityahidden persuader
in increasing sales? Who really knows, let’s
just leave it at something for the automobile
aaddvveerrttiisseemmeennttaafificciioonnaaddoossttooaannaallyysseeaannddppoonnddeerr
−andenjoy!