Auto rewind

Simply worded, the black-and-white automobile advertisements of the past had a charm of their own

The other day, I glanced through automobile advertisements published in the pages of The Hindu fifty years ago, and they seemed to me to have come from an alien planet. By focussing almost entirely on the products and cutting out the frills, these advertisements seemed novel to me.

We know good advertising thrives on subtle comparisons, metaphors and stories. Most of these advertisements are at variance with this wisdom.

Occasionally, when there is a story, it is a story that is largely focussed on the product. Attempts at making a clever suggestion, piquing people’s curiosity and creating aspirations are rare.

Among the rare and interesting ones that I came across, is an advertisement put out by Castrol. The text is kept to the minimum, but is effective. No attempt is made to explain the winning features of the product. A picture of a VC10 aeroplane and a statement ‘For their new VC10s British United chose Castrol’ is followed by the suggestion “so should you for your…”, together with images of an Ambassador, Fiat and Herald, three cars that ruled Indian roads at that time.

The majority of the other advertisements are way different from this one. Often, an image of the product — a tyre or a truck — will be surrounded by text, simply worded and aimed at spotlighting the product’s best features. Sometimes, even the text is bland. Most of the time, people are found nowhere in the picture.

Here’s an illustration. In an ad put out by Inchek Tyres Limited, a huge picture of a whitewall tyre is accompanied by the line ‘Inchek car tyres are specially designed for Indian roads and climatic conditions’ and nothing else.

Despite being bland, these advertisements seem to have a charm of their won. And, where does this charm come from? Is it because they just stick to the facts? Is it because they are always gently worded and don’t attempt to take on the competition? Is it because they speak softly and don’t hustle the reader into making a decision? Is it because they are simple, and we tend to associate honesty with simplicity?

These advertisements are probably likeable because they are in black and white and belong to a different era. And, the human mind is inclined to glorify the past.

And, if the scales fell from our eyes, we may probably see these advertisements as poorly designed and lacking in creativity.