Posted on 11/30/2022 4:33:12 PM PST by Rummyfan
The "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" marketing effort alienated people of all ages with strange nepotism.
When Ransom E. Olds lent his moniker to one of America's first automakers all the way back in 1897, he couldn't have known that 90 years into the future the Oldsmobile brand would make an ill-fated attempt to distance itself from the geriatric associations of the Olds surname. At the end of the 1980s, Oldsmobile was determined to shake the image that it built boring cars for sleepy seniors. The end result was the indelible "This Is Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" catchphrase, birthed from one of the strangest publicity campaigns to ever emanate from Detroit.
Key to the entire enterprise was an absurd set of television commercials that paired past-their-prime celebrities with their decidedly not-famous children. Described as 'silly' even by their original copywriter, Steffan Postaer, the TV spots seemed determined to both shame Oldsmobile's existing buyer base of dads and grand-dads while also confusing prospective new customers being pitched by people they'd never heard of.
Instead of bridging generations, the "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" effort alienated people of all ages, and has been be blamed for hastening Oldsmobile's irrelevance and eventual death a decade down the road from the marketing campaign's kickoff. Before that happened, however, things got weird. How weird? Like, "Leonard Nimoy's daughter" weird.
(Excerpt) Read more at motortrend.com ...
Jeff Lynne is the man.
Once you see it that way, EVERYTHING will piss you off. LOL!
Sorry to ruin your life.
Yeah i like his stuff too
Please don’t.
Will need eye bleach.
LOL 🤣
We had a 1980 or 1981 Cutlass Supreme with a diesel. If anything, that alone should have taken the brand down.
I must buck the trend. Every program I worked on/coded, I was a user as well.
There was a time when Olds were innovators.
I miss my 59.
And I’ve always wanted a 57 J2 Tri-Power.
So yes, saying “This is not.....” kind of infers it is not as good.
Which was at least truth in advertising.
I always wrote software as if I had to use it. The interactive stuff, especially.
With Windows software, I turned options on and off so it would guide you through the interface and not permit you to make errors other than typing. When appropriate you could only select certain options from a list.
Absolutely the most fun I ever had writing software.
Land Yacht!
Wow! Brings back memories.
Make that brown with a ragtop. Then put the crazy older sister of a friend behind the wheel, and us three terrified teens in the other seats.
“Just to see how it drives on the interstate,” she said. I bet she laughed the entire rest of that day and all the next.
I had a ‘72 442. By 1972, the 442 was a handling package and the performance was gone. But it was still a great looking car. I sold it to my brother and I tracked it to the guy who owned it after the guy who bought it from my brother and the trail went cold. Wish I could find it and by it back.
Most new cars look all the same to me.
No more style, panache, muscle, etc.
Exceptions are few and far between.
Agreed. Cookie cutter cars, cookie cutter apartment complexes, cookie cutter housing developments. Kind of a pattern...
Neighbor had two beautiful Toronados - one gold and the next turquoise, each with creme vinyl tops. Really neat!
Basically, as if Cadillac had then built a Roadster. Big, posh, fully loaded, leather, high tech, and fast as h*ll!
We used to roar on flat country roads ... the speedometer, a horizontal cylinder, would roll over and keep going past 120 mph!
Whew. Glad we never slipped with it at those speeds.
LOL, you’re still here...
I worked at Taco Bell in ‘66, maybe at the the tenth one. Everything on the menu was 19¢. Four tacos and a Pepsi (we don’t have Coke) for $1.10 (sales tax of course). I was making $1.25 an hour, I could get a meal for an hour’s worth of work. Same meal today is $9.25 before tax—which might be what a current TB worker gets around here for an hour’s work.
Vista Cruiser. My Uncle had one. Beautiful Car.
Later on, when I was in the Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton, I bought a 1972 Oldsmobile '98 for $800 at a used car lot in Oceanside. The salesman who sold it to me was the classic sleazy salesman with a plaid sports jacket and a cigar in his mouth.
That Oldsmobile was a nice ride however, until the transmission fell out of it and I abandoned it at Mount Palomar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.