Promotional Vehicles Part 6: Showcase Trucks and Car Advertising

Roarington's voyage of discovery of the world's strangest and most curious promotional vehicles comes to an end this week with the final instalment dedicated to showcase trucks and other creations to promote cars or motorbikes. Today we are used to big advertising campaigns on television or social media platforms for the launch of new models from car manufacturers, but how did marketing work in the 1930s? Big trade fairs, such as the Chicago World's Fair of 1933, were the best way to get the word out about one's products, but for GM vice-president Charles Kettering this was not enough and he decided to take this concept on the road. The name chosen was ‘Parade of Progress’, a travelling caravan that would touch even the smallest towns in America to bring the future to life for millions of people across the country.
GM amazed visitors with vehicles created specifically for the event, such as the spectacular Streamliners that joined together through marquees to create real stands, just like the hospitality facilities that today characterise racing paddocks around the world.

Advertised by GM in their 1936 promotional material as ‘Silver-Topped Streamliners’, these spectacular vans were the stars of the ‘Parade of Progress’ in the USA.

The Streamliners led the Parade of Progress until 1940, when Kettering and GM decided to update the displays by enlarging the entire show by introducing the Futurliners with streamlined bodywork, decorated in Art Deco style, deep red painted sides and white roof and large chrome side panels. Real ancestors of today's motor homes, with the possibility of extracting modular structures from the roof and sides to form a visitable stage.

From 1940 GM introduced the successor to the ‘Streamliner’ with aerodynamic bodywork and Art Deco decoration called the ‘Futurliner’.

The vision of the future with inventions that seemed magical continued at GM's ‘Futurama’ exhibition curated by designer Norman Bel Geddes at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. Here the ‘Glass Car’ was presented, a 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six with an entirely transparent body made of Plexiglas instead of sheet metal exterior. It is said to have cost $25,000 to build in collaboration with the chemical company Rohm & Haas, an astronomical sum at the time.

The ‘Glass Car’ made for the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair with a completely transparent Plexiglas body.

The parade concept continued after the Second World War with ‘The Automobile Golden Jubilee’ in 1946, a 10-day event celebrating Detroit as the automobile capital of the world after reaching the milestone of more than 90 million units. More than 750,000 people poured down Woodward Avenue to watch the show where floats such as the Buick float, made up of the front of the car combined with a futuristic pointed shape, gave a truly fascinating effect projected towards tomorrow.

The Buick float at ‘The Automobile Golden Jubilee’ in Detroit in 1946.

Noteworthy creations also began to appear in Europe at the same time, such as the small Lancia Ardea van that was modified by the Turin dealer Gastaldelli to accommodate a Vespa in the rear. On the roof and sides the references to contact and purchase the small scooter that revolutionised post-war Italy by motoring the country.

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

At the same time, Innocenti presented the Vespa's rival product, the Lambretta. Perhaps inspired by Gastaldelli's creation, the Milanese company decided to take a similar approach to promotion by using real showcase trucks branded with the Lambretta logo and with the side part transparent and removable to show off the small scooter.

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