Monday, June 21, 2021
Stars and cars
Random thought.
Reading old car books as usual, I noticed the Dodge Aries, one of those awful K-cars around 1981.
Question: Were there any other specifically astrological cars?
Answer: Only one. Taurus.
Aries makes sense as a literal translation of Dodge's traditional mascot, but Taurus doesn't make sense. The Taurus pulled auto design toward fish, not toward cattle. It should have been the Pisces.
Aries and Taurus were simultaneous. Were the branders aiming at the New Age movement, popular in that decade?
Astronomical names are extremely common. There was a Moon in the 20s, named after founder Joseph Moon. There were several plain Stars, including Billy Durant's explicitly Jewish answer to Ford. After spaceflight became the Official Circus, there were dozens of star compounds, mainly by Pontiac and Olds. Plymouth called its midsize car the Satellite in the '60s.
Olds is the most astronomical of all. For many years its mascot was Saturn. The first Olds V8 was called the Rocket. Then a long series of star compounds, one Apollo, and the Saturn brand intended to replace Olds.
Aside from Aries and Taurus, the only name that verged on astrological was Mercury, first used briefly by Chevy then permanently by Ford. In both cases the name specifically referred to the winged-foot god, not the little planet next to the sun.
Some of the star signs are clearly unusable. Cancer and Virgo are out. Sagittarius is too long. But why not Leo or Libra or Gemini? Leo and Libra would automatically create lively mascots and marketing themes. Gemini would have resonated with the spaceflight circus.
Labels: Asked and not worth asking
¶ 12:50 AM
