Back before car blogs, before Al Gore invented the Internet in fact, the primary source of car information was in print. And where you find automotive articles, you’ll also find auto ads. Auto makers still splash their wares across the pages of Road & Track, Car and Driver and the ilk – despite the move in advertising budgets away from traditional media and to this new-fangled Series of Tubes – but not in the volume of the pre-Internet days.
Most of those old car magazines are today doing their part in keeping America’s landfills from collapsing, but some have been squirreled away by crazy collectors, who oddly see some value in them. It’s from just such a collection that we’re able to jump in the way-back machine and take a look at how manufacturers positioned and promoted their product in that by-gone era. Today, we’re looking at an ad for the then-new  VW Rabbit Plymouth Horizon.

Some of the auto makers’ print ads were clever, some were informative, some made you wonder just what the ad agency was thinking. Who could have guessed, back in 1978, the prescience of America Taking To The Horrizon for Plymouth? Thankfully, at least the car in the setting sun image is driving toward the camera, and not away. Still, this ad does a good job of demonstrating, visually, the most salient points of the car- driving through snow shows the security of front wheel drive – then still a kind of exotic setup. The Horizon surrounded by the high school football team expresses its all-American nature, and the family with their luggage is a standard, and very explicit, demonstration of a vehicle’s capacity. And of course, this being from the gas-crunch era, the most prominent copy feature is fuel economy and price. 41 highway and 27 city are hybrid numbers today demonstrating the cost of safety and comfort features demanded in our present cars. And that $3,881 entry price is remarkable when you consider that in less than ten-years time, that amount wouldn’t even buy you a Yugo. There’s nothing flashy or thought provoking about the ad, just a clear and concise message of what the Horizon was intended to be- honest, basic family transportation. All this concludes with the reassurance that Plymouth Horizon Can Handle It.
One thing that is not present in this ad is any promotion of the Plymouth brand, and maybe that is part of what led to their ruination. Once was a day when you could get pretty much the exact same car – less badges – from multiple brands. Didn’t like the way the Dodge salesman was ogling your wife’s boobs, or husband’s biceps while negotiating over that Omni? Blow that dealership off and head over to Plymouth for a Horizon. Sadly, that’s not an option anymore and car buyers will just have to deal with lecherous salespeople, or plan on taking the bus, as Plymouth followed the Horizon into the horizon. And Dodge is on the precipice of doing the same if the Fiats don’t do what the Omni/Horizon couldn’t.
Last thought- why don’t we have economy cars with the option of wood-grain siding any more? Is that too much to ask?