Subaru beat Volkswagen to the ugly get together.
It’s important to hand it to Volkswagen. The carmaker’s good “It’s ugly, however it will get you there” marketing campaign, first seen in 1969, broke by the media litter, and helped to ascertain Volkswagen as a maker of purposeful, dependable, and decidedly counter-culture automobiles.
Extra Favourite Automotive Advertisements
1968 Subaru 360
Developed by DDB, the “It’s ugly” advertisements have been a part of a sequence of humorous and bravely model self-deprecating advertisements that received the company a lot of awards, plus a long-term relationship with VW.
However for all of its shiny, new-think polish, the VW marketing campaign didn’t characteristic the primary auto advert to consult with the car being promoted as ugly. That honor goes to Subaru.
Historical past
Beating VW to the ugly punch by about 12 months, the parents on the newly-established Subaru of America slapped collectively an early advert for 3 merchandise the corporate would import to the U.S., together with a tiny van, a tiny pickup, and a miniature automotive known as the 360. It was the 360 that Subaru advertising and marketing people determined to recommend was in poor health favored by the corporate’s design crew.
The Subaru tagline “Low cost and ugly does it!” is seen on the prime of the advert shared right here, and if we’re being truthful, we’re inclined to agree that the 360 was fairly awkward trying.
However not solely was the 360 ugly, it was additionally unsafe. Although the automotive’s sub $1300 base value was enticing, Shopper Stories labelled the automotive “not acceptable,” for a lot of causes.
Subaru 360
As a result of the 360 got here in slightly below 1000 kilos—a 2024 Subaru Impreza begins round 3200 kilos—it was not topic to the usual security necessities anticipated of most automobiles on the street on the time. And, whereas the Beetle was typically thought-about sluggish again within the day, the 2200-pound German financial system automotive would attain 75 mph on a great day. The 360, nevertheless, powered by a 423-cc 2-stroke 2-cylinder engine, was reported to have a most velocity of between 51 and 59 mph, relying on who you wish to imagine.
Malcolm Bricklin
For these not within the know, no much less an automotive icon than Malcom Bricklin was answerable for bringing Subaru to America. This is identical Malcom Bricklin who introduced America the Bricklin SV-1 sports activities automotive (1974), Worldwide Car Importers (1982), Yugo (1985), Chery (2002), and the Bricklin 3EV (2024).
(Worldwide Car Importers was created to import the Fiat X1/9 and 2000 sports activities automobiles after Fiat ceased doing so itself. The Chery operation was created to import Chinese language car constructed by maker Chery to the U.S.)
Gross sales
All instructed, Bricklin imported 10,000 360s to the U.S., in addition to a small variety of the aforementioned vans and pickups. Bricklin himself left Subaru in 1971 after taking the American enterprise public. Earlier than leaving, Bricklin started importing the Subaru FF-1 Star, a conventional-looking small sedan with considerably extra energy than the 360. In some ways, the Star was actually the primary American-market Subaru—a minimum of in spirit.
As for the advert, now we have handy it to Subaru/Bricklin for embracing the product’s weak spot and making an attempt to spin it as a unusual optimistic. We’d prefer to assume that Malcolm himself was answerable for the advert copy. Additionally, in contrast to the Beetle, the 360 was, actually, kinda ugly.
1969 Dodge Adventurer: Favourite Automotive Advertisements
Subaru 360 Footage
(Click on under for enlarged photographs)