Prior to the Kaiser buyout, Willys-Overland was a regular advertiser in the Saturday evening post, with ads appearing almost monthly from late 1941 (after winning its military contract) up until 1952.
From 1952 through 1954, the focus of the advertising shifted to the new Willys Areo line of vehicles, abandoning jeep advertising in the Post almost entirely.
In February of 1954, one ad for the Willys wagon was published, the only jeep-oriented ad of the year. However, the title of the ad was “The Common-Sense Car that Leads a Double Life”. So, even that ad was as much a “car'” ad as a “jeep” ad.
February 27, 1954. The branding emphasis remained on the ‘car’ being a ‘Willys’, rather than jeep, as it had since the 1951 ‘Willys Makes Sense’ campaign.
Given how similar the above ad was to the Willys Makes Sense campaign of 1951, It’s clear that even under the early days of Kaiser’s management, the advertising for the Willys/Jeep line had yet to be changed. That probably explains why no more jeep ads appeared in the Saturday Evening Post for the remainder of 1954 (and Willys Aero ads ceased after June of 1954).
Then, on January 8, 1955, Willys Motors published a two-page splash with an ad for it’s new model: The CJ-5.
January 08, 1955, Saturday Evening Post
Subsequently, Willys Motors’ advertising in the Post waned again, absent throughout the remainder of 1955. It’s advertising in the Post remained dormant until mid-1956.
On June 16, 1956, Willys Motors published “Gets there … works there … anywhere!”. The ad also appeared to have introduced a new slogan: ‘Jeep’ VEHICLES BY WILLYS KEEP AMERICA ON THE MOVE (that was used by the company at least through the end of 1957 .. I haven’t check past that yet).
June 16, 1956, Saturday Evening Post, “Gets there … works there … anywhere!”
Once again, jeep ads started appearing on a regular basis. On August 4, 1956, the ad, “Gets there … works there … anywhere” was published:
August 04, 1956, Saturday Evening Post, “Traction … Action … Satisfaction!”
Willys Motors continued advertising monthly with the same three-pane theme. These were the next three ads:
Willys Motors ads: September 22, 1956, “Goes more places, Does more Jobs, Save more money”; October 20, 1956, “Takes the lead, On the road, Off the road”; November 17, 1956, “Thousands … Millions … Billions!”.
On December 29, 1956, the final Post issue of the year, Willys Motors interrupted its three-panel campaign to introduce readers, in a two-page color ad no less, to the new model of jeep: the Forward Control ‘Jeep’ FC-150.
December 29, 1956, Saturday Evening Post 2-page ad, “extraordinary! Now… the completely new Forward Control ‘Jeep’ FC-150”
As well see in a future post, the company continued an almost monthly advertising campaign through out the following year of 1957.
When we were kids in the late ’50s my dad drove a non-jeep pickup and our primary family car was a green jeep wagon. One day at a stoplight some teenage boys yelled, “hey lady, nice tank” at my mother. It wasn’t long before the jeep was replaced with a 1959 Plymouth wagon. Going camping was never the same.
Maybe the father of those teenage boys worked for Plymouth? 🙂
I bought a bunch of these Saturday Evening Post Willys page ads at a flea market for two bucks a page back in the 90’s, framed them and still hanging on my living room wall today. I always knew a good deal when I saw one.
Serms as if no one at Willys ever did customer surveys to determine which name, Jeep or Willys, had the more powerful brand. Instead, corporate was fixated on their name first and foremost. Despite that, look which one survives and thrives today.