1957 Chevrolet Newspaper Ad

MORE CHEVROLET CARS WERE BOUGHT IN 1956 THAN ANY OTHER CAR....THE 17th STRAIGHT CAR PRODUCTION YEAR THAT CHEVROLET'S BEEN FIRST IN SALES.

Still another leadership ad so popular with the Chevy sales group back then. But very nicely done in a disarming sort of way. The USA was in love with Chevy then and would be for many more years. The art could have been done by any number of artists but my guess is Dan Romano. Jim Hastings was more than likely the art director and the one that had the idea for the tree carving. He was very good at solving a tough assignment in a very unique way. Given the time he could have done the illustration himself.

It nearly brings a tear to your eye to think of the situation Chevrolet and General Motors find themselves in today. I wish they could run this ad or one like it now. 

THIS EXCLUSIVE COLLECTION CAN BE YOURS !

What a great way to get into a feature story. When is the last time you saw any feature advertising for a car in any form? Maybe nobody collects stamps anymore but they did back then and this idea used stamp collecting to feature the collection of fine attributes on the new Chevy. Things like Outrigger Rear Springs--Anti Dive Brakes--Body By Fisher--6 Engine-Drive Choices--and more. Very inventive thinking for making an ad. Come to think of it, there are a bunch of stamps of various kinds available at my post office so people must be collecting them. It's more expensive now like everything else. I don't know who did the art for this - Dan Romano maybe? Whoever did the art did a fine job and whoever had the idea did an outstanding job. 

'55 Chevrolet Magazine Ad

BLUE-RIBBON BEAUTY that's stealing the thunder from the high priced cars!

A really nice ad idea to promote the notion that Chevy was as good as they come. The illustration by Fred Ludekins is beautifully done and very much in keeping with the brand image being constructed by Jim Hastings for Chevrolet. And it's fun to see all the non-GM cars in the background even if they are mostly very high priced foreign makes. Chevy liked to compare itself to Cadillac but couldn't except in a round about way like this. Jim Hastings and his copy partner Pete Booth were beginning to change the brand image of Chevy in a very important way. More car for the money had always been a Chevrolet theme and now new and more memorable ways were being used to make the point. The color on this old slide does not give the illustration the credit it deserves. An interesting detail is the Chevrolet logo. It has undergone numerous changes since this ad was produced. Today the word Chevrolet does not appear in the bow tie. If you watch in other ads you will see lots of little changes to it but not to the bow tie shape.

Punch-line to the years hottest power story-CHEVROLET"TURBO-FIRE V8!

This art was done by a San Francisco artist from Patterson and Hall studio. Probably Stan Galli but I am not sure. You can see the Goldem Gate bridge in the background and the mountains beyond. Those mountains were to become famous as the years past. As I recall the big one just the other side of the bridge is Mt. Tamalpais. Later on as art began to give way to photography for auto ad illustrations Mt Tamalpias became a location destination for just about anyone shooting car ads on a beautiful twisting and winding road. It had everything--you could have the ocean in the background if you wished or just a fantastic road. There was even a tunnel as you approached the mountain. And up on the upper level was an old WWII gun emplacement-a very large structure that was used to house coastal defense artillery. I don't even remember the number of times I used the mountain but it was a bunch over the years.

1955 Chevrolet Newspaper Ad

THERE'S EVEN MORE TO CHEVROLET STYLING THAN MEETS THE EYE!

Not the kind of ad you see anymore. Probably because so many cars look so much alike now and that is because of all the government mandates for fuel economy. At the time, this was a big leap forward for Chevy. This is a delightful way to show styling details with the high fashion looking ladies holding numbered cards. The art may have been done in Detroit but I don't know for sure. Much of the art from this time was done in San Francisco at the Patterson and Hall studio where Jim Hastings once worked.