Suddenly, it’s 1960!
I’ve never taken much interest in cars. I see them as a mode of transportation, and my concern is with drivability and safety features, with looks a distant third. Even as a child growing up in the 1950s I didn’t take much interest in how they looked, except for liking pink ones and turquoise-blue ones, which were not all that uncommon then.
Ditto car advertisements. I just didn’t pay attention – except for one ad campaign that I remember vividly.
The year was 1957 and the ad was for Plymouth, the make of car my mother drove. The musical pitch was “Suddenly, it’s 1960!” The reason this made such an impression on me had little to do with the car and everything to do with the slogan. After all, as far as I was concerned, it had been the 1950s forever. I didn’t recall any other decade. 1960 seemed impossibly futuristic, like a science fiction dream. The ad opened my eyes to the fact that the 60s were coming, although in the far-distant three-years-away future.
Last night it occurred to me that I could probably find some of these ads on YouTube. Sure enough, this came up:
I have to admit it’s a sharp-looking car.
I also grew up in the 50s, born in 1954. I remember the change from 1959 to 1960 being somewhat disorienting. Now on all my school work I had to print 01/01/60. Most of all I remember coming into school on January 20, 1961 (my birthday of all days) and wondering, “Where’s president Eisenhower’s picture?”, “Who’s that other guy?”.
Dad had one for a short while. I don’t remember much about it except the rather odd fins in the rear (which the video seems to de-emphasize). I was a junior in high school.
Dad then upscaled to a Chrysler and drove them for years, in fact, til his passing in 1981. Dads were really car loyal in those days!
All these years later, I drive a Mini Cooper…
I get off on ’57 Chevys…
Peter Crowell:
My father always drove a Chrysler. He traded in his old one for a new one every 2 years He usually didn’t even go to the dealer to pick it out. The dealer knew what he wanted: dark blue or dark maroon.