Promotional Vehicles Part 3: After Food, Other Products

Roarington's journey to discover the most curious and extravagant promotional vehicles in history continues with more examples of what can be called “Marketing on Wheels”. After last week's groceries, which you can find here Promotional Vehicles - Part 1: Marketing on Wheels, today we present creations related to everyday and household products.
The economic boom in Europe from the 1950s onwards allowed the spread of personal care and one of the most advertised products was toothpaste from various brands. Durban's for example has a huge toothbrush on the roof with two tubes positioned at the back, truly futuristic for the period!

The Durban's promotional vehicle with the large toothbrush on the roof and toothpaste tubes at the rear.

The vehicles used were the most varied and seeing the wheelbase, it is likely that very often the chassis were trucks or vans as in the case of Chlorodont where there are two toothpaste tubes on the roof like rockets. This is complemented by the shape of the radiator intake which gives the front end a dazzling smile.

Chlorodont, another toothpaste brand, decided to go big by modifying a large commercial vehicle with two tubes on the roof and a big smile on the front.

And what about the Binaca toothpaste tube car? Here the imagination had no limits, transforming the body to make it identical to the product on the market using a chassis as a basis for the design. Spectacular!

The most imaginative creation related to the promotion of toothpaste was certainly Binaca's with a real tube car with a cap at the front.

To stay on the subject of tubes, here is the Vitabrill hair polish. We are in the early 1950s at the Tour de France cycling race and among the vehicles in the caravan popped up a heavily modified Renault van with a real tube of brilliantine placed obliquely on the roof. A triumph of craftsmanship.

Impressive attention to detail for the promotional vehicle of Vitabrill, a brand manufacturer of hair pomade.

At the same time, BIC, the manufacturer of the famous pen, presented the first advertising vehicle that travelled alongside the Tour de France cyclists. The design was entrusted to the artist Félix Aublet, who inserted the BIC Cristal pen on the sides and even for the cockpit, which took on the contours of a rocket. Such was the biro's revolution compared to the archaic ink-dip pen.

Everyone is familiar with the Cristal pen from BIC, but few know that since the 1950s the company has built several promotional vehicles for the Tour de France cycling race.

The inventor of the Zippo lighter, George G. Blaisdell, impressed by the spectacle of a parade of promotional vehicles, decided to purchase a Chrysler Saratoga in 1947. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, it travelled to 48 states, participating in special events, fairs, exhibitions and driving parades. It was so well known that it earned the nickname Zippo Car. The original car was lost, but in 1996 the company bought a grey 1947 Chrysler New Yorker and began the creation of another Zippo Car that mirrored the original with additional options. It still exists today.

The Zippo Car with its modified lighter-shaped interior still remains one of the most extravagant creations today.