First off, I think these Buick commercials are cool. I’m not sure why I think this, but I do.
Now on with the show:
Wouldn’t the family of Harley Earl find it somewhat strange that suddenly Buick has a man impersonating him in commercials?
and
How can Buick hope to make a car that can compare with the designs of the great Harley Earl??? Wouldn’t that be akin to Stephen King saying he will write the next great piece of world literature?
Maybe I’m just reading to much into this…
I don’t know. Does the family of Harland Sanders find it strange that they had a man impersonating him, and later a cartoon? His head is trademarked, for crying out loud.
I like those commercials.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all I had to say.
I’m a little… well, quite, actually, miffed that the modern cars they’re trying to blame on The Ghost of Harley Earl are just the same old same old with portholes glued on.
Harley Earl’s legacy was a LOT cooler than just those portholes. And portholes aren’t enough to make modern Buicks worthy of having his name attached to their design.
It would be nice if they would make cars that live up to Earl’s reputation.
I wonder how many people know who Harley Earl is?
I didn’t know who Harley Earl, but I think I recognize the actor playing him.
It’s been a while since I saw the History Channel’s America Eats, but I don’t think Sanders’ family would mind, considering KFC is his company. Sanders has passed on, but his family probably still controls the company’s licensing.
That’s what I’m saying…Unless they make their new line of cars hover or something, there is no way they will be living up to Harley’s standard.
Before seeing this thread, I assumed, obviously in error, that Harley Earl was a gimmick invented for the commercials, like that Dan guy from the Del Taco commercials. Is he some big name designer that Buick has decided to use a brand for their new line of cars, like Sid Meier’s name is used on games from his company? Why would they hire an actor to play him?
Because he’s dead, Number six.
Info on Harley Earl:
http://www.detnews.com/history/earl/earl.htm
http://www.idavette.net/HistFact/earl.htm
http://www.buick.com/harley/
He is legendary in car design, with many of his ideas still in place today.
My theory:
1.) Design team spends their entire budget on beer and hookers.
2.) Management asks Design for the ‘03 body templates.
3.) Design team panics, spilling their beer in the process.
4.) Drunken designer has an idea: “Let’s drill holes in last year’s ugly car and blame it on the dead guy!”
5.) Management, being managers, loves the idea.
6.) Advertising gets a billion dollars to install GoHE in Tiger Woods’ garage.
New Buicks do not have: tailfins, beautiful flowing lines, flying-nekkid-chick hood ornaments, acres of chrome, or any style whatsoever, nor do they look like wingless jet fighters.
Harley Earl’s Buicks had all those things, sometimes all on the same car (which, I’ll admit, occasionally got pretty heinous).
To hell with the new cars — I want a '42 Century.
They’re speed holes. They make the car go faster.
Actually you’re a bit off there. The honorary Col. Sanders sold his chicken recipe and the company that bought it (and eventually set up the chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken) liked him so much they wanted to use him as the spokesman. It’s not really “his” or “his family’s” company, though I don’t doubt they hold a good portion of it.
Sanders, you see, started out with a roadside diner that became infamous for having the best fried chicken in Kentucky. That diner grew to be quite large, but unfortunately for him the interstate highway system was built and the highway moved away from his diner taking his business with it. Instead of just retiring he decided to sell his chicken recipe to other restaurants and managed to become even more successful. That’s when he was approached to sell his recipe, was kept on as the spokesman, and the rest is history.
Ironically, the Buick commercials (Which Earl would probably hate, seeing as how those are some really ugly cars.) are a rip-off of the old Nissan “Why should rich guys have all the fun?” ads, which themselves were rip-offs of Tucker: The Man and His Dream. There is, hope, however. Robert Lutz (the man who gave Chrysler some of its coolest cars in decades) is now running GM, and he’s told the folks at Buick that many of their new designs are crap. Some of the Pontiac prototypes he’s initiated (the Solstice for example) are gorgeous, so perhaps he’s now turning his attention to Buick and planning on reversing some of the crap they’re coming out with now. (I hate the ads, BTW.)