Thursday, March 6, 2008

1958 Chevrolet Announcement Ad Layout For Impala

'58 CHEVY RIDES ON AIR. And that was true. There was a brand new air ride available. It made the Chevy ride smoother than ever and this ad played to that with the girls, from previous ads, floating on air with the use of tiny umbrellas. We see a rear view of our make-believe '58 Impala. How much fun it was for someone to design the car--the ad too. There were several more ad campaigns for this announcement but these will do to show how it was to make ads back then. In those days and a little later when I was making the ads, way too many campaigns were made to get something approved. We were all kind of flying by the seat of our pants. There was hardly any marketing information to go on as opposed to today. At this time Chevrolet didn't have anyone with the title of director of marketing.  And about the "Air Ride" As I remember it didn't work well. I had occasion to go to a Chevy garage near the GM Building to get a car for some photography. There were about 25 new Impalas there and nearly every one looked like someone had removed the suspension from one side or the other. The cars bumpers were nearly on the ground. Something was very wrong with the Air Ride. They got it fixed and the '58 Impala became one of the most successful nameplates ever. Still around today and I drove one to visit our son for Thanksgiving last year. It was a rental I drove from Michigan to Lake Forest Ill. and it was great. 

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