Monday, March 24, 2008

'57 Chevrolet Magazine Ad

IT LIKES TO FLEX THOSE BIG NEW MUSCLES !
There is an ad below that is like this but prepared for newspaper reproduction. Jim Hastings may have been the art director but if not he had a lot to do with the way it turned out. Notice the moving train that is similar to moving things in most Chevy ads done at this time. Sometimes the moving thing was a plane or boat near the Chevy. This concept for Chevy art was most likely the direction of Hastings. He was the head art guy at the time. I heard Jim tell about this ad on several occasions. The original idea and art had a steam locomotive in the picture with smoke streaming back to give the feeling of motion. When the art was going through the approval process someone decided that since General Motors made locomotives there should be a GM Diesel in the picture rather than the steam engine. This was changed as directed but those that decide such things thought the engine as presented was not a GM engine. So this ad had to go to the General Motors Diesel Locomotive Division for final approval. Sometimes one wonders how so many good ads made it through all the sieves.

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