The
Pontiac GTO Digital History Project
Project Scope
IntroductionHomepageScopeSite MapRationaleSite ReviewTechnical Plan
Code 43-L: Tropical Lime |
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This project will be a combination of an illustrated electronic essay and an archive-database. It will also include an interactive timeline linked to elements of the database that will document the advertising campaign used by General Motors in particular to first introduce and then promote the sales of the GTO. Advertisements and information from other “muscle cars” will also be included. As time permits, other documentation may be included in the database, such as corporate decision memos, first-person remembrances or oral histories, and the order forms used by dealers and private buyers to order a muscle car, among other information.
Why study a car and its advertising? The automobile, most historians would agree, changed the landscape of our culture. It brought about the actual layout of our cities, permitted the rise of suburbia, and brought about massive government public building projects such as the superhighway program begun under President Dwight Eisenhower. It brought about an increase in the encroachment of the Federal government in the private sector through the regulation of the automotive industry at many levels. The automotive industry also employed millions of workers, from those in the factories to those pumping gasoline.
Ultimately this website is a vehicle (forgive the pun) to present arguments that will refute the findings of certain scholars of the automobile and advertising. Influential historians of the automobile have presented a number of arguments that I believe are great exaggerations or are just plain incorrect while others have come close to what I believe to be close to the "truth." James J. Flink has argued, correctly I think, that the auto is the last bastion of individualism for the “common man” left in our consumer society but he also argued that ecological concerns impacted the industry beginning in the mid-1960s, which was, I would argue, way too early and my study of the GTO would disprove his argument. ( 1 ) Flink also argued that the U.S. auto industry lagged behind consumer desires in the 1960s who were pining for a European style smaller and more economical car. ( 2 ) Here again I would argue that he is a decade too early. Lawrence J. White argued that U.S. manufacturers were “technologically stagnant” in the 1950s and 1960s, especially compared to the European manufacturers. ( 3 ) Again, I believe he is wrong and my proposed project would refute his arguments.
Other historians have examined advertising in the 1960s. Thomas C. Frank argued that businesses adopted advertising that appealed to the counter-culture not because the executives believed in the radical ideas of that culture but that they fit into the corporate interests. ( 4 ) My proposal would show, at least from the perspective of General Motors, that this was not true either. Pontiac’s ad agency developed ads aimed to appeal to the baby-boomer generation’s beliefs in individual freedom and expressions of individualism but GM’s top management kept quashing their proposals.
The website will ultimately be guided by the “spirit” of ways to study advertising laid out in the Center for New Media and History’s website on advertising as well as take into consideration the current scholarship on advertising in general and automobile advertising in particular, such as Pamela Laird’s excellent article on just that topic as well as the scholars mentioned previously. (5) The questions that will be addressed include:
- Who developed the ad? Was the ad agency staffed primarily by white males in the 20s or 30s?
- What suggestions or instructions did Pontiac and GM give to the ad agency?
- Who were the executives at Pontiac and GM who made these decisions regarding ad content, target audience, etc.?
- Who was the target audience of the advertising?
- What impact or influence did the issue of gender have on this ad? What does the ad say about women and gender relations during this era?
- What do the ads say about this period in U.S. history?
- What role, if any, did gender play in the development of the GTO? Race?
- What does the popularity of the muscle car say about popular culture at the time? Were enough sold (market impact) to draw any conclusions about that culture or about society during this time?
This website will include the following main subsections:
- An illustrated narrative essay that outlines the history of the GTO. It will contain my arguments as well as refutations of other scholars’ arguments (as mentioned earlier).
- An interactive timeline that will address the important occurrences/events, advertisements, order forms and sales catalogues, units sold, and will include information regarding the competing muscle cars available, all by model year.
- A section on GTO “hype” that will examine how the GTO impacted popular culture and society through an interactive examination of artifacts, songs, television shows, motion pictures, etc.
- A database that will include print advertisements, sales brochures, and a sampling of television ads.
- A glossary of terms used that will also have short biographies of the major individuals involved.
- A site map.
- A search engine.
- Possibly an email link that would permit some feedback from viewers.
The potential audiences that I hope to attract are as varied as the body color choices available to the GTO buyer. From Carousel Red to Orbit Orange, the colors offered covered the gamut of consumer tastes, as would this website. Specifically I would hope to produce a website that would appeal to scholars interested in cultural history, the history of advertising, business history or the history of automobiles. I would also hope that aficionados, gear-heads, and other enthusiasts would find my site to be of interest. Indeed, all would be welcome.
Additionally the design and layout of the site would also be part of my argument. Each separate section will have a table of contents on the left border and each will be colored with one of the more interesting body colors available to the GTO buyer. This would lend support to my argument regarding the ability of the buyer to “build” a car to suit his or her sense of individuality.
The above is a reflection of the realm of the possible versus the ideal. Given time and greater resources, this project has the potential of becoming a solid dissertation project. If that were to come about, I would add a number of other sections. These would include oral histories of surviving persons involved in the muscle car era, including the man who developed the GTO ad program, Jim Wangers. It would also include research trips to GM headquarters as well as the archives of Pontiac Motor Corporation. The Pontiac & Oakland Historical International Club has their own archives as well as contacts with many of the surviving individuals involved with Pontiac from the period under study. Suggestions regarding any aspect of this website are always welcome.
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1) James J. Flink, "Three Stages of American Automobile Consciousness," American Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 4 (October, 1972), p. 473.
3) Lawrence J. White, The Automobile Industry Since 1945, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 258.
4) Thomas C. Frank, The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counter Culture and the Rise of Hip Consumerism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).
5) Pamela Walker Laird, "'The Car Without A Single Weakness': Early Automobile Advertising," Technology and Culture, Vol. 37, No. 4 (October, 1996), pp. 796-812.
Proposal Introduction - Project Scope - Site Map - Rationale - Site Review - Technical Plan