We clearly love old promotional films around here. We run basically all of them that we can find. Why? They are fun and sometimes funny but they are also a great window into how the companies building the cars wanted them marketed and sold, right? In the case of this promotional film for the 1955 Chevrolet, performance was a clear part of the equation. We’re guessing that the engineers and executives at Chevrolet knew that they had a winner on their hands with this car but we can hardly believe that they figured it would turn into something so iconic as would the following 1956 and 1957 models. These cars truly captured the American public’s desires and they sold them as fast as they could build them.
What we also love about these things is the fact that they are absolutely propaganda films. Of course the Chevrolet is going to dominate every test and win every sort of challenge. How could it not? The idea is the make the viewer believe that this product is so far superior to anything else that he’d be an idiot to even consider another car. These films were also used for dealers to train and excite their sales staff so when John Q Public walked into the dealer, the sales guys could woo his sensibilities on why he needed the car and then why he needed every possible option he could get on it.
We’ve got to admite to having a bit of a jaw drop moment right after the start of this one. No, the car you are watching is not going in slow motion, it is just proceeding slowly and as you’ll quickly learn, that’s for good reason.
You don’t have to love ti-five Chevrolets to enjoy this. A fun trip back in time.
