A 1963 Chevrolet Corvair ad showed a man enjoying the car’s sporting potential while a woman shopped. Click on image to enlarge (Old Car Advertisements).
“Chevrolet marketers wanted to preserve ‘sportiness’ and ‘performance’ as masculine activities, but at the same time realized that women appreciated a good-handling car as much as their male counterparts. So, Chevrolet repurposed the performance attributes of the Corvair into a variety of guises when it marketed later versions of the car to women. This distinction shifted as the Corvair progressed more and more steadily towards the sports-car end of the auto market. However, Chevrolet continuously discouraged women from considering the Corvair to be a sports car, and in the most extreme cases marketers relegated women to the role of passive actors, mere ornaments for a masculine vehicle. By maintaining this distinction, Chevrolet marketers hoped that the Corvair would not become too feminized for male consumers.”
— John E. Mohr, Automotive History Review (2020, p. 35)
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With the 2015 redesign of the Mustang, Ford had the potential to reassert its leadership in what I have referred to as the faux pony car field. Instead, Ford took the cheap and easy way […]
(EXPANDED FROM 8/25/2021) A few years ago Paul Niedermeyer (2021) wondered whether a 1961 Oldsmobile marketing image displayed people of color. The short answer is “no,” which we will talk about later in this story. […]
2 Comments
What catches my eve is the painting appears to be in a Spanish speaking country. A few months back you had a Pontiac ad of the same vintage apparently set in France, and apparently by the same artist.
Chevrolet’s advertising agency, Campbell-Ewald, may have submitted potential campaigns to the division’s marketing executives, but the executives made the final decisions. If the Corvair’s sportiness was to be communicated by masculine images and ease-to-drive by feminine imagery, this thinking came from the MEN at Chevrolet, reinforced by the 14th Floor of the G.M. Building. One thing I will say is that Ford’s agency, J. Walter Thompson knew exactly whom to aim their advertising of the first-generation Mustang to: Entry-level buyers populated by young women, while young men wanted the V-8s. 4-speeds and fastbacks.
What catches my eve is the painting appears to be in a Spanish speaking country. A few months back you had a Pontiac ad of the same vintage apparently set in France, and apparently by the same artist.
Chevrolet’s advertising agency, Campbell-Ewald, may have submitted potential campaigns to the division’s marketing executives, but the executives made the final decisions. If the Corvair’s sportiness was to be communicated by masculine images and ease-to-drive by feminine imagery, this thinking came from the MEN at Chevrolet, reinforced by the 14th Floor of the G.M. Building. One thing I will say is that Ford’s agency, J. Walter Thompson knew exactly whom to aim their advertising of the first-generation Mustang to: Entry-level buyers populated by young women, while young men wanted the V-8s. 4-speeds and fastbacks.