Scholarly Commons

The Driving Demand: Media, Manufacturers, and American Car Enthusiasts 1970s-1980s

Through media, enthusiasts engaged in discourse both about their culture and the economics of the automotive industry, and therefore developed a sense of identity and work ethic through play. Car hobbyist media was the most present in advertisements and magazines, thus it posed two paradigms: car makers telling customers what they wanted and car buyers telling the manufacturer what to make. Specifically, it was the car enthusiasts collectively imposing their demands against the American car industry. There are changes over time in car media marketing through advertising and magazines. These case studies of advertisements and brochures from car dealerships from the 1970s and 1980s show a cultural shift in the market and on different buyers, both regular and enthusiast. Volkswagen, and other imports, had a postmodernist theme in marketing to stand out against modernism of the “big 3” of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, which shows the power of demand.