A 1963 Chevrolet Corvair ad showed a man enjoying the car’s sporting potential while a woman shopped. Click on image to enlarge (Old Car Advertisements).
“Chevrolet marketers wanted to preserve ‘sportiness’ and ‘performance’ as masculine activities, but at the same time realized that women appreciated a good-handling car as much as their male counterparts. So, Chevrolet repurposed the performance attributes of the Corvair into a variety of guises when it marketed later versions of the car to women. This distinction shifted as the Corvair progressed more and more steadily towards the sports-car end of the auto market. However, Chevrolet continuously discouraged women from considering the Corvair to be a sports car, and in the most extreme cases marketers relegated women to the role of passive actors, mere ornaments for a masculine vehicle. By maintaining this distinction, Chevrolet marketers hoped that the Corvair would not become too feminized for male consumers.”
— John E. Mohr, Automotive History Review (2020, p. 35)
(EXPANDED FROM 8/28/2020) Studebaker’s prospects for survival as an automobile manufacturer arguably ended when it shut down its South Bend plant in December, 1963. The biggest reason why is that the corporation’s board of directors […]
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What catches my eve is the painting appears to be in a Spanish speaking country. A few months back you had a Pontiac ad of the same vintage apparently set in France, and apparently by the same artist.
James E. (Jed) Duvall
3 years ago
Chevrolet’s advertising agency, Campbell-Ewald, may have submitted potential campaigns to the division’s marketing executives, but the executives made the final decisions. If the Corvair’s sportiness was to be communicated by masculine images and ease-to-drive by feminine imagery, this thinking came from the MEN at Chevrolet, reinforced by the 14th Floor of the G.M. Building. One thing I will say is that Ford’s agency, J. Walter Thompson knew exactly whom to aim their advertising of the first-generation Mustang to: Entry-level buyers populated by young women, while young men wanted the V-8s. 4-speeds and fastbacks.
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What catches my eve is the painting appears to be in a Spanish speaking country. A few months back you had a Pontiac ad of the same vintage apparently set in France, and apparently by the same artist.
Chevrolet’s advertising agency, Campbell-Ewald, may have submitted potential campaigns to the division’s marketing executives, but the executives made the final decisions. If the Corvair’s sportiness was to be communicated by masculine images and ease-to-drive by feminine imagery, this thinking came from the MEN at Chevrolet, reinforced by the 14th Floor of the G.M. Building. One thing I will say is that Ford’s agency, J. Walter Thompson knew exactly whom to aim their advertising of the first-generation Mustang to: Entry-level buyers populated by young women, while young men wanted the V-8s. 4-speeds and fastbacks.