Si Gary Dodge Ad – Dec 8, 1961

Here's another ad for a local car dealer with a Christmas theme, this time for Si Gary Dodge. It ran in The Lorain Journal on December 8, 1961.

In 1961 Si Gary Dodge was at 2260 Broadway (where Rent-A-Center is located today). The dealership later moved down the street to 2950 Broadway (which I wrote about here).

You can tell this ad is a few years after the 1950s Spitzer Motors ad from yesterday. Once again, the 1960s seems to be the cultural turning point when it comes to advertising.

The mildly sexist ad obviously hearkens back to the age when men did most of the car shopping. (Those days are long gone; the spouse bought at least one car and told me about it over the phone later!)

With regards to the illustration of the leggy girl in the Santa outfit, I guess the dealers were trying anything to attract attention on a cluttered newspaper page full of competing car ads.

The ad's still much tamer than what our grandfathers ogled in dog-eared copies of The Police Gazette, though.