One of the things I like to do in my free time is look through old magazines. I’m not much interested in the articles and pictures. What I am interested in is the advertisements and the writing style used in...
One of the things I like to do in my free time is look through old magazines. I’m not much interested in the articles and pictures. What I am interested in is the advertisements and the writing style used in those old ads.
I get the same enjoyment from looking at Toyota brochures from the 1950s and 1960s. They can be pretty entertaining.
Here’s a good example from a 1959 Toyopet Crown brochure - and as always on Open Road, if you'd like a larger view, just click on the picture:
Notice the couple – man and woman sooo ‘50s stereotypical - looking at the car. The text on the left strikes me as very funny. It would never see the light of day in any Toyota brochure today.
It says, "Look, Andy, the Toyopet’s really a BIG car. Plenty of room for even my pheasant-feather hat…and your legs!"
This probably is not the most politically correct way to describe a car.
How about this page from a 1965 Corona brochure:
Of course, there is the 1960’s woman with her male companion looking at the Corona. Again, the text at the bottom is quite amusing.
It says, "It’s the first capsule-designed sports sedan to hit the American road! And the TOYOTA CORONA fits both the family and the fun-loving sportsman to a T…Here, in a unique engineering first, is a 90 hp sports-sedan that you can gun to 100 mph - yet can cradle Mom and the kids gently to market and to school-with 4-door foam seat comfort. Even the price is capsule designed to fit Dad’s pocketbook."
Can you imagine any manufacturer today tempting a customer to drive at 100 mph? I can’t. And what, in heaven’s name, is capsule-design?
During the 1960s, some Toyota brochures attempted to appeal to a younger, hipper crowd. This one,
for the ‘69 Corolla, is a good example. Notice the groovy kids playing their rock ‘n roll above the Corolla. The drummer even has a Beatle-type look.http://toyota.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/17/1969_corolla.jpg
By the time the 1970s rolled around, things have changed a bit. Brochures tended to show more real-world scenes while using language that we today might judge to be more politically correct. This cover
from the 1973 Carina brochure shows a toddler on the roof and his mom looking at him. It’s obviously a staged scene, but to me, it looks far more natural than some of the photos in earlier brochures.
Contrast all of the above with an example of a 2008 Corolla brochure. Notice first the absence of any people in the photo. This became more and more common beginning in the late 1970s. And when there are people in the photos, there is much less focus on them, and more focus on the vehicle.
The text in the brochure, while still flowery, is much more politically correct than in past brochures. Gone are the references to mom going to the grocery store, and nowhere does a brochure inform us that, "even dad can afford it."
Clearly, tastes change, and so does advertising style. I’ve no doubt that in another 50 years, we will look back and think of the current brochures as funny and quaint. For now, though, they provide a pretty good reflection of the state of today’s advertising styles and tastes.
- Mitchel S. Brown, Corporate Archives
More...
One of the things I like to do in my free time is look through old magazines. I’m not much interested in the articles and pictures. What I am interested in is the advertisements and the writing style used in those old ads.
I get the same enjoyment from looking at Toyota brochures from the 1950s and 1960s. They can be pretty entertaining.
Here’s a good example from a 1959 Toyopet Crown brochure - and as always on Open Road, if you'd like a larger view, just click on the picture:
Notice the couple – man and woman sooo ‘50s stereotypical - looking at the car. The text on the left strikes me as very funny. It would never see the light of day in any Toyota brochure today.
It says, "Look, Andy, the Toyopet’s really a BIG car. Plenty of room for even my pheasant-feather hat…and your legs!"
This probably is not the most politically correct way to describe a car.
How about this page from a 1965 Corona brochure:
Of course, there is the 1960’s woman with her male companion looking at the Corona. Again, the text at the bottom is quite amusing.
It says, "It’s the first capsule-designed sports sedan to hit the American road! And the TOYOTA CORONA fits both the family and the fun-loving sportsman to a T…Here, in a unique engineering first, is a 90 hp sports-sedan that you can gun to 100 mph - yet can cradle Mom and the kids gently to market and to school-with 4-door foam seat comfort. Even the price is capsule designed to fit Dad’s pocketbook."
Can you imagine any manufacturer today tempting a customer to drive at 100 mph? I can’t. And what, in heaven’s name, is capsule-design?
During the 1960s, some Toyota brochures attempted to appeal to a younger, hipper crowd. This one,
for the ‘69 Corolla, is a good example. Notice the groovy kids playing their rock ‘n roll above the Corolla. The drummer even has a Beatle-type look.http://toyota.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/17/1969_corolla.jpg By the time the 1970s rolled around, things have changed a bit. Brochures tended to show more real-world scenes while using language that we today might judge to be more politically correct. This cover
from the 1973 Carina brochure shows a toddler on the roof and his mom looking at him. It’s obviously a staged scene, but to me, it looks far more natural than some of the photos in earlier brochures. Contrast all of the above with an example of a 2008 Corolla brochure. Notice first the absence of any people in the photo. This became more and more common beginning in the late 1970s. And when there are people in the photos, there is much less focus on them, and more focus on the vehicle.
The text in the brochure, while still flowery, is much more politically correct than in past brochures. Gone are the references to mom going to the grocery store, and nowhere does a brochure inform us that, "even dad can afford it."
Clearly, tastes change, and so does advertising style. I’ve no doubt that in another 50 years, we will look back and think of the current brochures as funny and quaint. For now, though, they provide a pretty good reflection of the state of today’s advertising styles and tastes.
- Mitchel S. Brown, Corporate Archives
More...