(Photo By Flickr user Aldenjewell.)
Following our newest gallery, The Art of Mercury (Go now if you haven't, there's a link back here when you're done.), we' present this special sub-feature: the Advertising Art of Mercury. Mercury's design and popularity took stride along with an amazing age in advertising that featured hand drawn concepts and spectacular tag lines like "Mighty. Beautiful. The Mighty Beautiful 1951 Mercury."
Follow the jump for more vintage advertising from Mercury's past....
The Following images are also via Aldenjewell.
1953 Mercury Monterey Coupe-- First in the looks parade!
1951 Mercury-- Mighty Beautiful
"One day in the life of a Mercury Station Wagon shows you why it's about the most useful car you ever owned!"
"17....18...19 miles per gallon and up (and even more with optional overdrive)."
"The big new car that stands alone for economy."
Do we really need SUVs? They look like they're doing fine with a Mercury Wagon!
"Come look into my cougar." What?
Again, these can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/, it's a great place for cool, vintage car ads.
Want an original copy of one of these ads? Check http://www.adclassix.com/caradsindex.htm, to view and purchase jewels like these:
Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant
rsholland says:
01:53 PM, 06/ 3/10
That last ad is not a Mercury ad. It's a Canadian '49 Ford, known as a Meteor north of the border. The Canadian Mercury was called a Monarch.
As a teenager, my mother owned a '57 Mercury Montclair 2-door hardtop. It had a push button automatic IIRC.
bc1960 says:
03:28 PM, 06/ 3/10
V8 as always...125 high compression horsepower. And that's SAE gross, not net. Still think 4-cylinder compacts and mid-sizers today are underpowered? And this is what was typical when most of today's highways were designed.
rsholland says:
05:58 PM, 06/ 3/10
When I was a kid (back in the 1950s), our next door neighbor had a 1940 Mercury 4-door, similar to the one in the ad above (second from the last ad). I remember the fenders being incredibly thick and strong.
cwc1 says:
06:06 PM, 06/ 3/10
I think one of Mercury's best slogans was, At the Sign of the Cat, from when I was a kid. That made me want to get a Mercury one day, particularly a Cougar, when I grew up. Back then, it seemed that Mercurys were something more than a Ford, and at least the styling was a bit different, with more than just a slightly altered grill and tail lights. Those days seemed some of Mercury's best times. Once Ford decided to badge engineer them all, that was the beginning of Mercury's end.
I'd sure love to have a '67 Cougar.
calspecial68 says:
08:40 PM, 06/ 3/10
@ rsholland:
I would have to kindly disagree about your statement. At the bottom, they tell the would-be buyer should visit a Lincoln-Mercury dealer. So I would think that this model is either a Mercury or a Lincoln. I could very well be wrong, but I'm just saying.
Such a shame that these cars are gone, as well as the brand itself.
bc1960 says:
09:04 PM, 06/ 3/10
@calspecial68:
No, it says visit a "Mercury-Lincoln-Meteor" dealer. At that time "Meteor" was a brand in itself, because in small Canadian towns the single FoMoCo dealer needed to offer a complete price range of vehicles. So the low or "popular" priced Meteor was indeed based on a US Ford, while Canadian Ford dealers offered a Monarch based on a US Mercury. Even in the US the concept of a range of vehicles under the same brand had not yet taken hold--thus the Edsel wasn't an expensive Ford, it was considered a different brand sold by Ford dealers.
rsholland says:
05:11 AM, 06/ 4/10
^ Not only that, but the word "Meteor" is used large (twice) in the ad headlines. A Meteor it is.
Interesting that "Mercury" and not "Monarch" is mentioned, as this is clearly a Canadian ad.
rsholland says:
05:22 AM, 06/ 4/10
It's also interesting to note, that as far as the 1939-40 models go, the nearly identical Fords became incredibly popular with hot-rodders (especially the '40 Ford Deluxe), while Mercurys didn't.
One of the little-noticed differences between the Mercurys and Ford of those two years, was that the Mercury had a much smaller rear wheel cut-out on the rear fender. Must have made changing the rear tire more difficult, as that was changed in later model years.
firstwagon says:
07:20 PM, 06/ 5/10
Shows how far you have to go back to find a Mercury worth mentioning. It was a great brand and many many Ford execs should hang their heads in shame for letting it waste away.