A good tagline can run for decades.
Ford has worked it’s way through dozens of advertising taglines over the decades, settling on “Go Further” in recent years.
Among the oldest carmakers on the planet, Ford demonstrated solid marketing acumen from the get go, making sure that the public knew about the brand’s ever declining prices during the Model T era, and keeping prospective shoppers aware that buying a car was becoming a very common thing to do.
Watch the Fords Go By
One of Ford’s first taglines was the brilliant “Don’t Experiment, Just Buy a Ford.” This line popped up—I think—in 1905, three years ahead of the Model T. Just after WWII, Ford took an optimistic tack, and began using the line, “There’s a Ford in Your Future.
And though there are several short-lived taglines that were used by the Blue Oval folks between “Don’t Experiment,” and “Ford in Your Future,” there was one particular tagline that saw intermittent use over a number of decades.
Watch the Fords Go By
The tagline “Watch the Fords Go By” was introduced in conjunction with the brand’s launch of the its first V8 in 1932. To commemorate the engine’s debut, Ford commissioned a strange bit of artwork from French artist A. M. Cassandre. Distributed as a poster, the image featured an eyeball with Ford’s V8 logo centered in the iris, and the line, “Watch the Fords Go By.”
The tagline worked a couple of ways. First, by 1932, America was teeming with Ford cars, and company marketers wanted the public to take note of popularity. Secondly, Ford’s new V8 models were period hotrods, and surprisingly quick for the price. Driver’s of older models, Ford or otherwise, had no choice but to watch the new V8s hustle past them.
Ford would later use the tagline to call attention to the maker’s modern design, as in the ad featured here:
Ford also used the tagline in some of its wartime ads, such as the example seen below featuring the B-24 Liberator bomber, which the company built.
Watching All the Fords Go By
Post-war, the tagline morphed into something new. Now “Watching All the Fords Go By,” the tagline had the charm of being familiar, while calling attention not to performance or design, but the sheer number models offered by Ford. This three-minute video from 1956 features a group of soldiers on leave talking note of Ford’s vast portfolio of models.
The whole Watch/Watching campaign—to the extent it was intentionally a campaign—seems to have died down after use in the commercial seen above.
It is interesting, though, how long returned to the concept, even as it evolved over the years. I recommend doing a Google searching “classic Ford print ads” and seeing how many ads in the “Watch” series you can pick out.
Also, as for our featured ad, please take note of the fabulous deco art work. It’s ads like this one that make me wish people still read magazines.
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1937 Ford Pictures
Click below for enlarged images