Selling Cadillac
There can be no car brand that was more aspirational in America during the Fifties than Cadillac. Its marketing led the way and its print ads are virtually works of art in themselves. Adverts depicted a glamorous world of jewels, beautiful women in ball gowns and upmarket hotels such as the Plaza in NewYork or the Fairmont in San Francisco. These were before the jet set era redefined what glamour was and what aspirations were – that would come later in the Sixties, when ad campaigns like Pontiac’s transposed the cars to cafe culture in the South of France or similarly exotic locales. In some ads the cars barely featured, it was all about what the car said about its owner: moneyed, with good taste and beauty. Harley Earl, GM’s head of styling, even appeared in the 1954 brochure alongside the Eldorado, a car he must have been very proud of being instrumental in creating.