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“The Car Without a Single Weakness”: Early Automobile Advertising

1996; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 37; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tech.1996.0007

1097-3729

Pamela Walker Laird,

American History and Culture

Cover Design “THE CAR WITHOUT A SINGLE WEAKNESS”: EARLY AUTOMOBILE ADVERTISING PAMELA WALKER LAIRD And speaking about hills, I want to tell you that the best part of automobiling—that part that gets you harder than anything else—is the way an automobile sweeps uphill. It doesn’t know a hill when it comes to it. A wheelbarrow can run down-hill. . . The auto­ mobile, however, going down-hill can make old grav­ itation dizzy, drunk, even with delight; and then with equal ease it will shoot up-hill in a way to make gravi­ tation tear its hair with frenzy and slink away crest­ fallen, conquered. [Editorial, Judicious Advertising, 1903] So exclaimed Frank Munsey, publisher extraordinaire, conclud­ ing with the assertion that automobiling “will renew the life and youth of the overworked man or woman.” “This,” the editors con­ firmed, “is good sound talk—truthful talk—and it offers a suggestion for strong convincing advertising argument for automobiling and for any automobile that goes.” But in contrast to this “sound talk,” most automobile advertisements had at the time “a certain same­ ness” that belied the promotional potential perceived by enthusiasts such as Munsey. Too many automobile manufacturers had failed to keep up with progress in advertising, and “still cling to the old-time idea that the proper sort of an ad shows a [wood]cut of the machine, with a few stock phrases” and a list of agents. “Let the makers catch up the spirit of enthusiasm—[and] stand out for work of the highest quality from those who prepare their announcements. The results will well repay the pains.”1 Dr. Laird teaches at the University of Colorado at Denver and at the University of Denver. Ker book, The Business ofProgress Johns Hopkins University Press, forth­ coming) , analyzes the transformation of American advertising. 1 “The Automobile Industry and Its Advertising Possibilities,’’ Judicious Advertising 1, no. 7 (May 1903): 15-17.© 1996 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/96/3704-0004S01.00 796 Early Automobile Advertising 797 For all the differences among early automakers and their prod­ ucts, they entered this new industry because they shared Munsey’s passion for the machines, and for the experiences ofautomobiling.2 Why did their advertisements not reflect that enthusiasm? Why did the cars in them not move? Where was the verve that bicycle adver­ tisements had shown since the 1880s, and the slogans—like “Colum­ bia Riders Know Naught but Pleasure”?3 Early auto builders had something to prove through their public statements, very much like their 19th-century counterparts in other new manufacturing industries, who often used advertisements dis­ playing factories, locomotives, and other symbols of industrial prog­ ress to make their case for inclusion in the pantheon of heroes of capitalism.4 But apparently automakers did not feel the need to prove that automobility was exciting. All auto ads before 1920, and most before 1930, featured technical discussions appropriate to a new and expensive, exciting but intimidating technology, akin to personal computer advertisements today. Lengthy copy gave poten­ tial owners information calculated to inspire confidence in the ma­ chines. It also taught a language for asking questions and exchang­ ing observations that relieved people’s uncertainties about the mysteries under the hood, as in the Dorris Motor Car Company’s discussions of “power plant,” “choker manipulation,” and “vapor­ ization of present day low grade gasoline” (fig. 1). Many advertising messages therefore presented cars as machines with parts and prices to be proud of—like the Dorris pictured quietly above a diagram of a “distillator.” This approach suited a complex machine that, for all its thrill, operated with noises, smells, and diffi­ culties yet unmediated by further technological refinement or cul­ tural familiarity. For all its swell language, the 1922 Dorris headline, “The Car WithoutA Single Weakness,” expressed characteristic hes­ itations and concerns, as did the strange boast that the Dorris pos­ sessed “wholesome beauty without a trace of freakishness.” Despite “sixteen years’ experience in designing and building high-grade cars,” this firm was still part of a young industry. Beyond this near-universal mechanical theme, a second theme dominated many early automobile advertisements, namely...