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In this issue: Disorientation is a strategy that originated from media sensationalism.1 In this issue, I explore historic milestones in automotive advertisements, how such messaging evolved, and the cultural impact.
Let’s kick the tires.
The Car Without A Single Weakness

Early automotive advertising campaigns (i.e., before 1920 and most before 1930) prioritized the technical. One example: The Dorris Distillator. In 1922, the Dorris Motor Company ran a campaign, called “The Car Without A Single Weakness”, describing the enduring, does-it-all qualities of The Dorris. Its key phrasing focused on industrial power, such as:
“A power plant that can be depended upon at all times and under all conditions to pick up speed from a snail’s pace to almost any speed desired—and to endure beyond your fondest hopes.”

Early campaigns also appealed to independence. In 1928, Buick ran a pioneering campaign designed to inspire women’s confidence behind the wheel, using key phrasing, such as:
“No automobile ever inspired them with such confidence — ever made them feel so at home behind the wheel — so certain it would always perform exactly as they wanted it to perform.”
“Buick has given women the finest car they’ve ever owned - a car ideally suited to their needs.”

The pleasure principle didn’t begin to dominate automotive advertising until 1923’s “Somewhere West of Laramie” campaign for The Playboy. In contrast to the technical focus of preceding advertisements, The Playboy’s key phrasing introduced sizzle:
“She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a place between greased lightning and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he’s going high, wide, and handsome.”
Pontiac’s 1959 “Wide Track” campaign proved similar.
When a man becomes the owner of a 1959 Pontiac he slices a few years off his age, becomes enthusiastic about driving almost anywhere any time, and holds his head a bit higher, a lot more proudly.

With the introduction of sizzle, automotive culture shifted gears overnight from technical merit to sex sells and image is everything. Here’s an example. In 1960, Buick introduced the “It Has A Way With Women” campaign, departing from its 1928 phrasing to instead favor sex and ego.
“We suspect that a woman gets just as great a lift as a man from commanding this great-powered, trigger-quick bundle of vitality to bow to her will.”
“Here’s a car to win any woman’s heart - with its level-gaited stride, its willing response to her hand on the wheel — its smart style and smart performance— its spaciousness and comfort — and its thrift.”

Sizzle forever changed consumer expectations and perceptions of messaging, and this cultural shift paved the road to today’s media sensationalism.
One More For The Road
A polar vortex blanketed much of the U.S. South in snow this week prompting a frenzy from local highway officials unaccustomed to navigating icy roads. Exciting as it may seem to see a rare snowfall, you should be on high alert.
For those interested in understanding the climate science, this study explains why colder temperatures are the result of global warming.
As always, thanks for taking a ride on Route 24!
Stay the course,
Sam
Want to read more by Route 24? Follow along on Bluesky and Notes.
For clarity, disorientation is defined as a loss of one’s sense of direction, position, or relationship to one’s surroundings — a lack of knowing what’s real. Sensationalism is defined as the use of shocking subjects, language, imagery, or style in media or politics to interest the public. Source: Merriam-Webster.