Free Essay Example: Car Advertising

The first car advertisement was in 1898, and it had the catchline "Dispense with a horse." The car advertisement industry has since then evolved several times, in line with the general marketing evolution, and it is also growing based on its requirements and needs. In the beginning, when cars first drove to the scene, they were exciting, new, and to some extent, cars were just a trick. The first advertisement of a car, as noted above, majorly focused on what a car was not, such as a cart and a horse. This trend began on the initial days is still used today; the concept of freedom. The advertisements even brought about the very important variable of cost by comparing the costs of a car to that of keeping a horse.

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Safety was the main idea in the very first advertisements of cars, whose aim was to reassure the resistant and fearful public of their product and the merits it had over other means such as the horse. Given that the product was a new thing in the market, it had to take a lot of surety in terms of safety to have the customers convinced, and there was also a touch of speed. The early adverts of a car mainly focused on the safety of the driver assurance, with features such as the ability to drive for long distances without accidents or incidents.

However, as cars became more common with time, the advertisers of cars had to become more impressionistic in their advertisements, with less focus on the functioning features, and more on idealistic scene illustration. Cars suddenly became the means to a more cosmopolitan and diverse lifestyle, and advertisements shifted to the luxury and comfort within the car and the in-car experience.

The advertisement for cars then shifted to the focus on lifestyle, and throughout the '50s, the car advertisement industry was getting bigger and to the top. However, Volkswagen changed the game when it came to its iconic 1959 advertisement "Think Small" for the VW Beetle. The advertisement of cars before this was built on the idea of a luxury lifestyle, and VW became very honest and real with very sharp contrast. Thinking of a more seismic tone and approach shift is very hard for a new kind of consumer. In this new era of marketing schemes, they attempted to associate the advertised product with a way of living. Looking at the previous campaigns, this was a big change, since previously, marketers tried to motivate the customers to purchase their products by boasting that cars were a type of status symbol. The companies were no longer just trying to sell a car to their consumers, but a lifestyle.

The following series of car advertisements was based on trust, and this was by the beginning of the 1970s when there was already an establishment of TV viewing as a core experience for families. Radio and print media had already been overtaken by TV as advertisement agencies. Marketers during this time leaned towards a trend where they looked for efficiency and accountability in their campaigns through the use of celebrity endorsements, scientific techniques, and data in convincing their audiences to trust the company brand. The enlisting of Formula One champion James Hunt was one of the most notable celebrity endorsement adverts, and this came from Vauxhall. Today, celebrity endorsement does not pack the same punch that it used to do during those times. They have been replaced by influencer marketing, whereby YouTube personalities and bloggers are being used instead.

The emotional connection then became a major element in a car advertisement, with the use of mini-masterpieces bursting with creativity and wit. During the 2000s, TV car adverts became internal events, with a stiff struggle between manufacturers to outdo each other with the most watchable and coolest ad. One of the ads that could be categorized as great advertising is Honda's 'Cog' which happened to be broadly honest as well.

In the near future, car advertising is going to become more about artificial intelligence systems, in-car technology, and autonomous driving functions; and less about the individual models. Volvo produced the self-driving car which was the Concept 26, in 2016, a car that was designed to allow drivers to make their own choice of how they want to spend their time while in the car; relaxing, creating, or driving. One fascinating thing is that Volvo put much emphasis on designing the interior of Concept 26 that it did not at all focus on creating the exterior. In the near future, advertisements for cars are likely to focus on the creation of seamless life by developing a connected car.