by David Burrell – – –
The AMHF has an extensive and fascinating collection of automotive brochures and print advertisements. Some date from the 1930s.
How many items are in the collection? No one has conducted a count. A small team of volunteers is doing so now and cataloguing them.
While the cataloguing continues, I’ve been searching the files for Australian “copycat” brochures and advertisements. These are where an Australian car maker and/or their advertising agency has copied the images and/or ideas from elsewhere and re-used them.
I’ve found quite a few. So many in fact, that they now form a series of Retro Stories which will appear on the AMHF’s website.
So, let’s kick off the first instalment with two of the best, from Ford and Pontiac/GMH.
1961 FORD FALCON
If you ever wondered how Ford Australia obtained the idea for the “Trim, Taut, Terrific” phrase for its 1961 XL Falcon, then look no further than the 1961 Chevrolet. Not only was Chevrolet’s copy line re-purposed, the brochure’s type face and artwork were reused as well, as the images below highlight.
The cat on the Chevrolet’s roof was cut from the Falcon brochure, below, but the boy on the ladder was retained. Whoever sketched the Falcon also re-used the Chevrolet’s wheels and the overall perspective.
The children were lost in the transition from Chevrolet to Falcon. The guy holding the umbrella looks much thinner in the Falcon brochure. Did anyone at GMH or Chevrolet complain about this blatant reproduction?
1961 PONTIAC
During the 1960s, GMH made good use of the American Pontiac advertisements and brochures, which featured the evocative drawings of the legendary Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman, known as Fitz&Van. In the example shown below, the local advertising agency artist re-drew the two door and four door hardtop Pontiac Venturas to create local pillared Laurentians and reverses the image. So simple. So cheap.
In future instalments of Retro copy cats, you will find that Pontiacs feature in almost every one of them. The reason is the Fitz&Van artworks. GMH obviously considered them too good not to use in Australian Pontiac brochures and advertising. In the USA Fitz&Van’s artwork is credited with helping Pontiac rise to third place in sales during the sixties.
