In looking at the 1959 magazines, I see the world as the Alpine came on the
scene. We have MGAs, TR3s and Austin Healeys advertsing the merits of
their sports cars - cars that have been around for a while, with
competition under their belts and predecessor sports cars. Here comes
Rootes without much in the way of previous sports cars or competition
success. (Yes, Bob and Ole, I don't see earlier Alpine making the same
impression in the US as the MG/TR/AH sports cars ). Actually, I think a
lot has to be said about the success of Rootes to sell as many Alpines as
they did.
The differences in the advertisements is also interesting. This is only a
generalization after looking at a few ads. I might later take this back.
However until then, most of the other ads had a similar flavor, with a
young couple driving the car, bestowing its dual capacities (sports and
around town), or one showing the car in racing action, bragging about its
victories. Then there were the Alpine ads, which more times than not,
really just showed the car with no background and no drivers. These were
more similar to the Jaguar ads, where I guess the thought was the car spoke
for itself.
Jay
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