Promotional Vehicles Part 6: Showcase Trucks and Car Advertising

Roarington’s journey through the strangest and most curious promotional vehicles in the world comes to an end this week with the final episode dedicated to showcase trucks and other creations used to promote cars or motorcycles. Today, we’re used to large advertising campaigns on television or social media platforms for the launch of new automotive models, but how did marketing work back in the 1930s? Major exhibitions, such as the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, were the best way to introduce new products to the public. But for GM’s Vice President Charles Kettering, that wasn’t enough — so he decided to take the concept on the road. The name he chose was “Parade of Progress”, a traveling caravan that would reach even the smallest towns in America, bringing the future to millions of people across the country. GM amazed visitors with vehicles created specifically for the event, such as the spectacular Streamliners, which could be joined together with large tents to form actual exhibition stands — very similar to the hospitality suites we now see in racing paddocks all over the world.

Advertised by GM in their 1936 promotional material as “Silver-Topped Streamliners,” these spectacular vans starred in the “Parade of Progress” across the USA.

The Streamliners led the “Parade of Progress” until 1940, when Kettering and GM decided to expand the exhibitions by scaling up the entire show and introducing the Futurliners. These vehicles featured aerodynamic bodies, Art Deco styling, deep red-painted sides, a white roof, and large chrome side panels. True ancestors of today’s motorhomes, they could deploy modular structures from the roof and side panels to form walkable stages.

Starting in 1940, GM introduced the successor to the Streamliner with aerodynamic bodywork and Art Deco details, known as the “Futurliner”.

The futuristic vision continued with GM’s “Futurama” exhibit, curated by designer Norman Bel Geddes for the 1939–1940 New York World’s Fair. One of the highlights was the “Glass Car”, a 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six with a fully transparent plexiglass body instead of metal panels. It’s said that the car, built in collaboration with chemical company Rohm & Haas, cost $25,000 to produce — an astronomical sum for the time.

The “Glass Car”, created for the 1939–1940 New York World’s Fair, featured a fully transparent plexiglass body.

The concept of a parade continued even after World War II with “The Automobile Golden Jubilee” in 1946, a ten-day event celebrating Detroit as the world capital of the automobile after surpassing the milestone of 90 million cars built. Over 750,000 people lined Woodward Avenue to witness the show, which featured floats like Buick’s, composed of the car’s front end joined to a futuristic pointed shape that created a stunning, forward-looking effect.

The Buick float at “The Automobile Golden Jubilee“ in Detroit in 1946.

Around the same time in Europe, noteworthy creations also began to appear — such as the small Lancia Ardea van, modified by Gastaldelli, a dealer in Turin, to hold a Vespa scooter in the rear section. On the roof and sides were references and contact details for purchasing the little scooter that revolutionized postwar Italy by motorizing the country.

The Lancia Ardea van modified by the dealer Gastaldelli to display a Vespa scooter in the rear.

During the same period, Innocenti presented its rival to the Vespa: the Lambretta. Perhaps inspired by Gastaldelli’s creation, the Milan-based company took a similar promotional approach, using fully branded showcase trucks with the Lambretta logo. These vehicles featured transparent and extendable side panels to prominently display the small scooter.

Innocenti's showcase truck to advertise the small scooter rival to the Vespa: the Lambretta.