Saturday, August 24, 2019
Quality control nation
An article in an old Collectible Auto mag includes an advertisement that tells a big story.
Nothing unusual about implying that your product has high quality. Of course the Pontiac wasn't an expensive car; people bought it to get a Chevy with an 8. It also had some neat gimmicks and gadgets that you couldn't get in a Chevy. Pontiac dashboards were often more attractive and luxurious than Cadillac dashboards.
What's distinctive about this ad is the unspoken assumption that readers were familiar with quality control procedures. The picture shows a magnet pulling the Pontiac up from a line of Brand X cars. Specific implication: Pontiac has more steel than Brand X. Broadly, the magnet is a metaphor for all kinds of sieves and selectors.
Quality control is still crucial in manufacturing, but manufacturing is such a small part of our fake "economy" now that a mass advertiser wouldn't consider this image.
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Graphic sidenote: The artist wasn't trying very hard to create generic Brand X. All of the cars are '38 GM models, identical to the Pontiac except for details. The one on the left is an Olds. The others don't have distinctive taillights so I can't say for sure.
Nothing unusual about implying that your product has high quality. Of course the Pontiac wasn't an expensive car; people bought it to get a Chevy with an 8. It also had some neat gimmicks and gadgets that you couldn't get in a Chevy. Pontiac dashboards were often more attractive and luxurious than Cadillac dashboards.
What's distinctive about this ad is the unspoken assumption that readers were familiar with quality control procedures. The picture shows a magnet pulling the Pontiac up from a line of Brand X cars. Specific implication: Pontiac has more steel than Brand X. Broadly, the magnet is a metaphor for all kinds of sieves and selectors.
Quality control is still crucial in manufacturing, but manufacturing is such a small part of our fake "economy" now that a mass advertiser wouldn't consider this image.
= = = = =
Graphic sidenote: The artist wasn't trying very hard to create generic Brand X. All of the cars are '38 GM models, identical to the Pontiac except for details. The one on the left is an Olds. The others don't have distinctive taillights so I can't say for sure.Labels: Alternate universe
¶ 12:00 AM
