How to Sell Cars!

Britain is troubled over the increasing sales of the new American “compact” cars, which is resulting in loss of export business, but is she sufficiently slick in her sales methods? For instance, at the Bow Mac Supermarket in Vancouver, where a Pontiac-Buick-Cadillac-Vauxhall dealership is operated along with grocery sales, a giant outdoor checker-board game is played on the parking lot, which has been marked out in two-feet black-and-white squares. The players are positioned 300 feet above the checker-board and move 24 bathing beauties from the platform of a gooseneck extension ladder mounted on a truck. As each girl reaches the opposite side of the board she is crowned queen and given a prize. The game is broadcast and televised and has brought over 5,000 people to the place.

Then, in Birmingham, Ala., a new Dodge model was introduced with a fashion show and a ladies’ winter wardrobe was given away as an attendance prize, while in Arkansas newly-washed cars are wrapped in plastic bags until collected by their owners. A Denver repair shop operator has a canary yellow Crosley station wagon covered with signwork that shows up one block away, the little car being towed behind customers’ cars on delivery, for use on the return journey. Finally, Goodyear in America have brought out translucent tyres in a rainbow of colours, capable of being “lighted from within for a warm and somewhat startling glow of safety and exotic beauty,” according to a Goodyear hand-out. At present these illuminated tyres are experimental and not for sale; they have been road-tested at 65 m.p.h. but, say Goodyear, may not reach the market for ten years.

We intended to comment on the foregoing, but words fail us …