Automotive advertising can tell us the story of the automotive industry as well as any other medium. These pages of adverts from Lotus Cars and Lotus themed advertisements taken from the Auto-Archives library show just a few of our favorites from the thousands that are stored on our system. The 300 or so advertisements currently shown are listed in A-Z order by Company name….. and partly by ‘Car Model’ within official Lotus Car company advertisments. High resolution image scans are available to purchase on request.
We have been seeing car advertisements for over 100 years now. Shiny Cadillacs, sleek Jaguars, and pink Mustangs. In the beginning, it was all simply black and white. So how has it changed? Auto advertising throughout the years has evolved tremendously thanks to imaginative, and sometimes not so effective, creative techniques. The methods for marketing cars have changed dramatically over the past 120 years. These days, we’re bombarded from all angles with slick videos, flashy print ads and more online content than we could ever possibly consume. It all began with very simple adverts, produced soon after motor vehicles were invented. The first ever car advert in a US publication appeared in the July 30, 1898 issue of Scientific American magazine and featured the headline “Dispense with a horse” and simply sold the benefits of the Winton Motor Carriage. In 1912, Henry Ford said: “Ford advertising never attempts to be clever.” And most companies seem to have stuck with that thought!
