This time when we enter the advertising time machine we'll disappear back to the late Sixties/early Seventies, an era in Australia of local V8 (and just a few six cylinder examples of) muscle, the were Europeans kings of handling and sophistication - and the Japanese were in a marketing position uncannily similar to today's Koreans... but much more confident.
It was a time when dealers advertised that you should "hang loose in a McLeod Ford horn car", when the slogan "too good to be true... until now" was used to sell a very unglamorous car, and when some atrocious advertising was used to push marques whose downwards dive would not have been helped by those errant copywriters....
In short, it's worth a wide-eyed look.
February 1974 was the date and Motor Manual was the magazine. And, inside the back cover and one of only four colour pages of the magazine, there was the advertisement for the Datsun 240K two-door. The 240Z sports car had been a wonderful success for Datsun, the 1600 had been an unexpected best seller - but the 240K languished in Australia in competition with the six-cylinder Falcon, Kingswood and Valiant.
"Introducing a Masterpiece," trumpeted the headline. "Datsun's new compact hardtop six," went on the text in scarcely smaller type. Neither the word 'compact' nor 'hardtop' were Australian vernacular - both were more at home in the US - but the idea was obvious.
The copy went on, "A masterpiece unmatched by any other hardtop six on the Australian market. The combination of all Datsun's great automotive innovations: the powerful OHC motor from the famed Datsun 240Z, the fully independent suspension so successfully proved on the Datsun 1600 and 180B, the power assisted disc brakes and radial tyres from Datsun's great rally cars and all the luxury comforts and extras from the Datsun 260C.
"A compact car with an exceptional power-to-weight ratio yet large enough for a family of five. In addition to all the usual Datsun 'free extras', the 240K gives you ultimate refinements like electric rear window defroster; adjustable tilt steering wheel; variable gear ratio steering; full range of instruments including tacho set in a wood grain dash. The 'C2' model further includes air conditioning and cassette stereo. These are just some of the refinements, your Datsun Dealer can show you the rest and how easy it is to step up from the ordinary sixes. Datsun 240K GL Manual and Automatic."
"How easy it is to step up from ordinary sixes," ahhhh, the gun sight's aim is clear....
There wasn't too much mention of power and performance in the Datsun ad, but that's not a philosophy applying in this full-pager. Appearing in the same year, the Torana promotion drew a strong relationship with motorsport success - "You don't stay a champion by counting past victories" - as well as implying that the Holden was always a car striding ahead.
"Excitement begins with the smooth, but very gutsy 3300 six, that delivers 135 bhp," said the text. "Or now you can option up to a 4.2 litre V8 and 185 bhp. And that famous four speed manual gearbox really gets your car going. Plus 10" power-assisted front disc brakes to stop you fast. And handling that beats Torana's previous best. Sounds good? The good news has barely started."
And for the really wild man, there was the new Torana SLR 5000. And what was that exactly?
"Take a new Torana SLR with all its goodies. Add the following. A 5-litre 240 bhp V8, four barrel carby and dual exhausts. Front air dam and rear spoiler. Limited slip diff.- and man, you're away."
You have to agree with the final line - indeed, it was "The car for its time".
Long before the Mitsubishi Colt that we all remember appeared, there was altogether another Mitsubishi Colt - and one that was arguably more advanced for its time. Certainly, it was more stylish - although this ad doesn't really show the fastback lines off to best advantage. Under a "Go for the Maximum" bellowing headline, the features spilled out in excited prose. Certainly when you read it now it all looks damn' good - so maybe the people who wrote the ad really did know what they were doing! After all, these sorta lines grab your attention, don't they...
"96 MPH: 73 HP. Sizzling performance from an oversquare 1100 cc engine with unique high-lift cam, twin S.U.'s, dual free-flow exhaust system. 'Six-six' comes up on the tacho in seconds."
That's 55kW to give a 155 km/h top speed - not bloody bad from just 1.1 litres!
"Giant killer in the' 69 Rothmans BP and Southern Cross rallies - Colt 1100's chalked up a 1st place Teams Prize and a 1st place Manufacturer's Prize, two outright 2nd's, one outright 3rd in these classic events. Among the 'Giants' that fell were Ford GT, Lotus Cortina, Porsche, Cooper 'S' and Repco Volvo.
"A sports fastback [the term hatchback hadn't yet been invented], a 5-seater, a 3-door station wagon - Colt 1100 SS meets your mood and your need. Contoured reclining bucket seats up front, foldaway seat in rear, and lush carpeting. And it's a rear loading wagon with bags of space for shopping, sports and fun gear.
"Radials, 4 on the floor, all synchro, front discs. Speed equipment plus superb suspension is only one of the reasons the Colt 1100 SS takes on all comers."
Standard reversing lights, dual chrome exhausts and instrumentation that included tacho, oil pressure and ammeter were pretty good going back in a 1970 Japanese car! But alas, very few people these days have ever even seen a genuine Colt...
The Japanese small car that did undoubtedly hold the 'performance' and 'rally success' badges was the Datsun 1600. However, by April 1972 (when this ad appeared), the four-door was getting on a bit - and in fact was about to be replaced with the re-bodied 180B. So, how to keep buyers interested? Simply hark back to the reputation that the car enjoyed: "Datsun 1600 - The Living Legend" is blunt enough!
The other lines were a bit more contentious," Everything about it adds up to real Grand Touring," said the ad. In smaller writing it went on, "But we don't call it a GT - it's our standard car." Hmmm, perhaps the reason that they didn't call it a GT is that Falcon owners would have starting head-hunting pedallers of the little Datsun - and of course in a straight-line, just blowing them away...
And no one - absolutely no one - could accuse Datsun of under-selling the 1600 replacement, the 180B. Just try this line for size: "Too good to be true... until now." Wow! You could imagine that applied to the Jaguar XJ12, or perhaps the BMW 3-litre cars - but to a Datsun? But with wonderful photography - no computer enhancement in those days - and with a dramatic layout, it's one of the best ads of this series. Pity of course that the car was just a giant step sideways...
Of course the early Seventies was the era of the B&W car magazine - the colour ads that we've shown so far were the absolute exception, and no doubt very expensive for that. This ad is a bit more typical of presentation - but not of content.
When British Leyland was formed, it ended up with the oddest assortment of cars that had to be sold side by side, from - as the ad suggests - the top-of-the-line luxury Jaguar to the bottom-of-the-line Mini. In Australia, throw in technically advanced (but in the public eyes, simply odd) cars like the Austin Kimberley and you have a product range sure to confuse everyone. Then of course, you also had dealers selling Rover 2000s (that vied directly with Triumph 2000s) and it all became a bit bizarre.
And, instead of sorting out confusion, the ad's copywriters went with it as a selling point... "The British Leyland line of cars ranges from the mighty Mini to the elegant Jaguar. There are Minis for shopping in. Minis for racing in. Sports cars for girls. Sports cars for men. Saloons for the little family. Saloons for the big family. Front wheel drive. Rear wheel drive. Super cars. Mobile shopping baskets. Chauffeur driven Limousines. You name it we've got it."
Contrast that confusion with the absolute clarity of Toyota's ad for the very first Celica. "Its beauty is more than skin deep," said the ad with confidence that simply didn't reflect the way in which Toyota sold in Australia in the early Seventies. "Maybe we're the only company left that turns dream cars into reality. That can take a stylist's car of tomorrow and turn it into an engineer's car of today. But that's what we've done with Celica."
In a time when Euro stylists regular displayed their prototypes of tomorrow's Fiats, Alfa Romeos and Ferraris to adoring crowds, to suggest that Toyota was the only car company turning dream cars into reality would have caused more than one car enthusiast to choke on their breakfast cereal. In fact, most would have simply laughed. But with the Celica, Toyota were onto a very, very good thing...
And, talking of Alfa Romeo, what were they doing in the early Seventies? Well, they had what was then regarded as the best handling front-wheel drive chassis in the world with the Alfasud - and some lousy advertising!
"Have you experienced driving an Alfa Romeo? It offers you European flair and sophistication. Also the technical advancements resulting from 60 years of racing triumphs. Which spell prestige, design, comfort and safety. All of these qualities are combined in the Alfasud Ti which is as lively as a kitten (like all Alfa Romeo cars), has a place for everybody and everything, a driver's seat made to measure, feels so smooth that you think you're driving on rails, and brakes on six wheels..."
Stilted, old fashioned ("lively as a kitten" for Godsakes!) and pretentious. Of course, it might all have been more or less true, but add in another five or six paragraphs of small text of this standard - and who was going to read though all that? (Oh and the "braking on six wheels"? They meant that the car had a rear brake proportioning valve...)
The 'Sud was a car streets ahead of the Celica in its technology, overall performance and handling. But which ad d'you reckon worked better - this one or the one above?
And then there were still the ads that took a forthright and clear aim... like this one. No misinterpretation is possible, nope - Allan Moffat was the winner, the championship was the Australian Touring car title of 1973, and the fuels and lubricants that were used? BP!
The 'Win on Sunday, sell on Monday' theme was heavily promoted throughout automotive advertising of the time, and the fact that the racing cars were vastly closer to road cars than our current mainstream formula would have helped enormously in the credibility of that link.
We admired the Celica ad above for its effectiveness and touch of cheekiness, but this Corolla ad from the same era steps w-a-y over the credibility line.
Like, yeah right, "Corolla puts some excitement in your humdrum."
This is the same Corolla that - even then - had a reputation as an excellent car for spinster school head mistresses in their early sixties... But no, "Corolla excitement means sitting back in comfort and safety whilst the car performs the way you want it, when you want it. Nippondenso, factory designed air-conditioning, an optional extra, is part of that sit-back comfort."
Ah, now I get it. Corolla excitement is having air-conditioning....
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