SALON

Thursday, Nov 17, 2011 1:00 AM UTC

How Ford built the ultimate lemon

A look at the design and promotion that went into the company's biggest flop: the Edsel

By

Topics: Imprint, Design, Auto Industry,

How Ford built the ultimate lemon
This article originally appeared on Imprint.

Imprint
The purpose of this piece is less about the actual history of the Edsel and more about the design and promotion of the car. I’ve always thought that it was one of the most outrageous looking automobiles to ever roll off an assembly line, and the name “Edsel” (Henry Ford’s son) hardly does a lyrical dance off one’s lips… What also intrigues me is how much money and effort was spent on the beast and how terribly wrong everything seemed to go. To help put things in perspective, I’ve included a good postmortem analysis from a 1959 article in Business Week below.

From Business Week November 28, 1959

My relationship with the Edsel started in 1968 when my dad made a film called, “Because That’s Why.” In this short film, there’s a sequence where two men stalk and hunt a pink 1959 Edsel. They end up “killing” the automobile and triumphantly pose with it strung up like one would with a Great White Shark. At 12 years old, I think I felt sorry for the beast, and it became a dream of mine to someday own an Edsel of my own. That never happened, but I was able to gather a lot of material on the car and actually used it in as a basis for papers I wrote in high school and college…

Shot from Joe Sedelmaier's short film "Because That's Why" 1968

In the annals of automobile history there are few sagas so fraught with failure as the Edsel. Ford spent $250 million to develop the car and lost another $200 million during the three-year existence of the car. Soon after its launch, unflattering nicknames like “Oldsmobile sucking a lemon” followed. Developed over a period of almost 10 years, the Edsel was Ford Motor Company’s answer to the mid-priced slot. In the 1950s, the closest that Ford came to a medium-priced car was its Mercury. Problem was, when it came time for Ford owners to upgrade, they sidestepped the Mercury and hopped up to a GM car like an Oldsmobile, Pontiac or Buick, and to a lesser extent a Chrysler product. Ford’s strategy was to develop a new line that would inspire loyalty to the parent company. A “Special Products Division” was developed by Ford to research what would be the perfect automobile to effectively fill this void. The “E-Car” (for experimental) program grew out of this.

Roy Brown, Edsel's designer (p18 "Edsel - The Motor Industry's Titanic" Robert Daines)

One of the approaches the Ford Motor Company took when preparing for the Edsel’s launch was an extensive campaign to recruit and hire dealerships that would sell the Edsel exclusively – NOT in tandem with other Ford, Mercury, or Lincoln models. This ultimately involved training schools for sales and service personnel – even the most experienced journeymen found themselves required to participate and learn how Ford wanted their new line sold and serviced.

Announcement's opening with picture of Edsel Ford and a letter to stockholders from Henry Ford II.

Edsel dealer sales agreement 1957

First issue of the Edsel “Service Beacon” provided to service departments to keep them updated on product issues and how to deal with them.

Pre-launch "Edsel Marketeer" dealership magazine, with select pages included below.

First post-launch "Edsel Marketeer" with entire issue below.

Leave behind 1957 residential door-hanger card.

1957 scale model offer - these don't go for cheap on eBay !

 

1957 Edsel paint color chip wheel.

The Edsel’s pre-launch promotional campaign was so extensive that the eventual unveiling couldn’t possibly live up to the hype. The following are some examples of what was produced, and demonstrates how extensive the project really was. Viewmaster even issued a set of 3-D slide discs featuring the Edsel line of cars. It’s also a reminder of how much of a role illustration used to play in automobile advertising. Hardly the case now  … For those of you interested in the advertising end of the story, Foote Cone & Belding (now part of DraftFCB) was contracted to handle the Edsel advertising campaign for Ford. (First Edsel Ad, Edsel Demo Ad)

Pre-launch Edsel ad showing shrouded car. (www.oldcaradvertising.com)

Official FoMoCo press release shots. Ford was nice enough to send these to me for free in 1970.

Premium 1957 Edsel Sales Brochure with complete scans below.

1st Edsel Owner's Manual.

1957 Edsel Features booklet with complete scans below.

A 1959 Edsel.

1960 Edsel sales booklet.

In terms of its distinctive front-grille styling, it’s interesting to see the centered “horse-collar” grille element reduce in size and prominence during the three-year genesis. By the time its last model year arrived in 1960 all that was left was a small inches-high logo shield. It would take another decade with the introduction of the 1968 Pontiac Bonneville, before an American car resurrected this vertical design treatment.

1959 Edsel

1968 Pontiac

Magazines featuring Edsel launch stories 1957. (That's the Sept 1957 issue of Fortune Magazine at the top)

A big event associated with the Edsel’s unveiling was “The Edsel Show” on CBS. Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney starred in a special live broadcast celebrating the car’s arrival.

Another televised reference to the car’s “distinctive” styling was a 1961 episode (Season 3/Episode 12) of “The Dick Van Dyke Show. ““The Sound of the Trumpets of Conscience Falls Deafly on a Brain That Holds Its Ears … Or Something Like That!” Rob Petrie witnesses a jewel robbery but can’t seem to remember any details about the crime. He later lets it slip  that the crooks were driving a fire-engine red Edsel – needless to say, it breaks the case. http://www.hulu.com/watch/113989/the-dick-van-dyke-show-the-sound-of-the-trumpets-of-conscience-falls-deafly-on-a-brain-that-holds-its-earsor-something-like-that#s-p17-so-i0

 

For a VERY brief time it was cool to be seen in an Edsel. From a late 1950's magazine on driving behavior for high school students.

Richard Nixon riding through Peru in an Edsel. (Intro page from "Edsel - The Motor Industry's Titanic" Robert Daines)

To learn more of the details behind the Edsel’s “colorful” history, here are several books I’ve found helpful and interesting:

“The Edsel Affair” – C. Gayle Warnock (1980)

“The Fate Of The Edsel & Other Business Adventures” – John Brooks (1963)

“Disaster In Dearborn” – Thomas E. Bonsall (2002)

“Selling The People’s Cadillac” – Jan G. Deutsch (1976)

“Edsel-The Motor Industry’s Titanic” Robert Daines (1994)

My Edsel Owners Club membership card circa 1971.

Thanks as usual go to Corrie Lebens here at JJSP for compiling all this material !

Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine, America’s oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint advances and expands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among its members.

More J.J. Sedelmaier.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 24 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine, America's oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint

advances and expands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among its members.

Continue Reading

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
3120 points3121 points | 2640 comments
vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
1106 points1107 points | 590 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
149 points150 points | 61 comments
vote
New campaign compares gun control to anti-LGBT discrimination
30 points31 points | 11 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
34 points35 points | 15 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations