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The Two Greatest Worst Car Ads Of All Time

Posted by: Jon Fine on May 21

Late last week Jalopnik pulled together its Ten Worst Car Ads of All Time. The unquestionably two most excellent-est of the lot—in a lovely bit of global symmetry, one comes from an American company and the other comes from a Japanese carmaker—are embedded below.

I sometimes feel that the car world exists in a kind of cultural cul-de-sac (and I am not writing this to trash Detroit, which I like and am fascinated with), that it’s a place where the car thing looms so large that it crowds out practically all other potential influences.

Am I right? Possibly. But even if you disagree, you’d certainly have to concur that when the below car ads tried to hop on some prevailing culture-of-the-moment, the viewers paid a very big price.

Datsun 280Z "Black Gold," c. 1980.


Plymouth Duster "My Duster," from a very scary moment of 1985 that I'm glad I've forgotten. (Warning: 91 seconds long.)

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Reader Comments

Peer Kafka

May 22, 2009 03:50 PM

This is tremendous. And much easier to consume than the referring slide show, which is unusually kludgy for a Gawker Media product, me thinks.

Ryan

May 23, 2009 11:10 PM

ROTFLMAO

Eric

May 25, 2009 12:09 PM

Terrific. Wonderful.

JohnyO

May 28, 2009 01:39 PM

There was so much subliminal messaging in the Black Gold commercial, my brain exploded!

Scherry

June 2, 2009 01:07 PM

Speaking as a former member of the exact demographic group at which the Duster commercial was aimed circa '85 (i.e. 13-15 year old girls who'd soon be pestering their parents for a first car) I'd say that was just about perfect, if not brilliant. There were so many effective subliminals in those quickly-flashed images. (Bikes are for little kids! Androgynous rockstarry boys will literally flip over your Duster!) We mid-thirty somethings remember this one fondly. Having said that--good Lord, the 80's were weird..

Jon Fine

June 2, 2009 01:19 PM

After careful review, I concur with Scherry wholeheartedly. (That it apparently appeared on MTV seals it.)

That said: good gawd, a commercial with a _guitar solo._

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The media, entertainment and marketing worlds continue to shapeshift on a near-daily basis, as new forms arise and old assumptions erode. Where is it all going? No one really knows. But on this blog BusinessWeek’s media writers Tom Lowry and Ron Grover promise to provide ample helpings of scoop, provocation, and sharp analysis as they track and annotate this constantly changing terrain.

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