Word: rambler
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Femme Fatale. That way, Abernethy is convinced, is to change the company's image. American has set out to strip the Rambler of the stodgy, maiden-aunt, economy image nurtured during George Romney's reign, and to surround it with the sporty accouterments and glamour that sell autos. Restyled Ramblers have already lost their boxy lines and blossomed forth in hard-tops and convertibles, with bucket seats, floor-mounted gearshifts and even a big, 8-cylinder engine that is definitely not economical. The fastback Marlin, introduced last March, is as sporty a car as Detroit manufactures today...
...telegraph that message, the company's advertising has gradually changed to the brighter side. The ads now identify Ramblers as the "Sensible Spectaculars," and have introduced a number of quite spectacular girls; one ad features a femme fatale who exults upon seeing a Marlin: "Rambler, I didn't think you were THAT kind of car." These changes to the warmer side, however, were accompanied by a growing coolness between American and the ad agency that has held the Rambler account for 28 years: Geyer, Morey, Ballard. This fall the $15 million account will go to Benton & Bowles...
Liked by Foreigners. One of the major problems facing Abernethy-whose biggest car, the Ambassador, is actually shorter than many intermediates-has been the decline of the compact market. This trend has cut Rambler sales by 14%, Valiant sales by 29% and Chevy II and Falcon sales each by 39% below their 1964 levels. In an attempt to counteract the slump, American will add luxury features to the 1966 Classic and Ambassador, avoid advertising them as compacts. The 1966 compact American will be given a sporty, sloping rear deck, and emphasized as American's sole compact...
Highly Volatile. Early last week in Montreal, Michelle Duclos loaded the trunk of her white 1961 Rambler with a brown cardboard box full of dynamite -each stick wrapped in pages of a French-language newspaper. The New Yorkers almost certainly could have purchased or stolen their dynamite closer to home, but getting it from Quebec terrorists added to the internationalism...
...market. Sales at American Motors, the compact company that has failed to share in Detroit's prosperity, were down 14%. Despite its plight, American is looking toward the new model year with just as much anticipation as its bigger brothers. In March it plans to introduce a fastback Rambler called the Marlin, hoping that it will serve as good bait for the customers who got away...