Subaru beat Volkswagen to the unsightly birthday celebration.
You must hand it to Volkswagen. The carmaker’s lavish “It’s ugly, but it gets you there” marketing campaign, first perceptible in 1969, destitute in the course of the media muddle, and helped to ascertain Volkswagen as a maker of purposeful, valuable, and decidedly counter-culture automobiles.
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1968 Subaru 360
Evolved by means of DDB, the “It’s ugly” advertisements have been a part of a order of funny and bravely logo self-deprecating advertisements that received the company quite a lot of awards, plus a long-term courting with VW.
However for all of its luminous, new-think polish, the VW marketing campaign didn’t property the primary auto advert to please see the car being promoted as unsightly. That honor is going to Subaru.
Historical past
Beating VW to the unsightly punch by means of about 365 days, the parents on the newly-established Subaru of The us slapped in combination an early advert for 3 merchandise the corporate would import to the U.S., together with a little van, a little pickup, and a mini automobile referred to as the 360. It was once the 360 that Subaru advertising and marketing people determined to indicate was once sick appreciated by means of the corporate’s design group.
The Subaru tagline “Cheap and ugly does it!” is perceptible on the govern of the advert shared right here, and if we’re being honest, we’re susceptible to agree that the 360 was once lovely awkward searching.
However now not best was once the 360 unsightly, it was once additionally unsafe. Even though the automobile’s sub $1300 bottom value was once sexy, Shopper Stories labelled the automobile “not acceptable,” for quite a lot of causes.
Subaru 360
For the reason that 360 got here in slightly below 1000 kilos—a 2024 Subaru Impreza begins round 3200 kilos—it was once now not topic to the usual protection necessities anticipated of maximum automobiles at the highway on the past. And, day the Beetle was once most often regarded as gradual again within the occasion, the 2200-pound German financial system automobile would achieve 75 mph on a excellent occasion. The 360, alternatively, powered by means of a 423-cc 2-stroke 2-cylinder engine, was once reported to have a most pace of between 51 and 59 mph, relying on who you need to consider.
Malcolm Bricklin
For the ones now not within the know, disagree much less an automobile icon than Malcom Bricklin was once liable for bringing Subaru to The us. This is similar Malcom Bricklin who introduced The us the Bricklin SV-1 sports activities automobile (1974), World Car Importers (1982), Yugo (1985), Chery (2002), and the Bricklin 3EV (2024).
(World Car Importers was once created to import the Fiat X1/9 and 2000 sports activities automobiles then Fiat ceased doing so itself. The Chery operation was once created to import Chinese language car constructed by means of maker Chery to the U.S.)
Gross sales
All instructed, Bricklin imported 10,000 360s to the U.S., in addition to a petite collection of the aforementioned trucks and pickups. Bricklin himself left Subaru in 1971 then taking the American industry family. Sooner than departure, Bricklin started uploading the Subaru FF-1 Famous person, a conventional-looking petite sedan with considerably extra energy than the 360. In some ways, the Famous person was once actually the primary American-market Subaru—no less than in spirit.
As for the advert, we need to hand it to Subaru/Bricklin for embracing the product’s illness and making an attempt to spin it as a unusual certain. We’d love to assume that Malcolm himself was once liable for the advert booklet. Additionally, not like the Beetle, the 360 was once, in reality, kinda unsightly.
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