Ok, I know that the late Harley Earle was a talented designer of cars…those “portholes” on the side of Buick cars (and the tailfins of the 1950’s) were part of his legacy. But why is GM resurrecting him (two tone shoes and double-breasted suits included)? The last one I saw shows him unveiling the latest Buick SUV, to an admiring crowd dressed up in the 1940’s styles, while the reporters snap pictures with ancient GRAFLEX cameras.
So, I old harley (dead since 1961) going to be with us for a while? Nobody under the age of 70 even knows who he was! Is BUICK thinking that bringing back a long-dead styling whiz is going to rejuvinate its fortunes?
Why not go all the way, and bring back David buick?
My bet is that no one else here is old enough to remember the Buick advertisement: “Next year, every car will have holes in its side.” 
Heh. I was wondering who the hell that Harley Earle guy was. Thanks!
I remember that, but I also remember that it was a commercial for the old VW Beetle, not Buick. In the ad, the crowd at a 1948 auto show is clustering around all the flashy American dream cars, while off in one corner a guy in a bowtie is extolling the merits of a Beetle, and being completely ignored. The joke, of course, was that the Beetle went on to decades of huge sales.
That’s a different commercial, but they’re very similar.
I certainly didn’t know who Earle was. I thought he was a new marketing tool, like Joe Isuzu.
I also had the wrong idea about his appearance. “I’ve come back to build you a great car.” He’s a ghost who is back from the grave? I thought he was a time traveler from the future who just happened to be about fifty years off in terms of fashion sense.
At one time, Buick was known as “the doctor’s car.” Since a doctor was the wealthiest person average folks would meet, Buicks were seen as a status symbol showing that one had “arrived” as it were. GM is trying to recaputre some of the magic that the Buick name once held, and have stupidly decided to do this by reviving Harely Earl in the commercials, rather than producing a car worthy of the Buick name (which they haven’t done since the 70s). Ironically enough, much of the style for these commercials was ripped off from the “Why Should Rich Guys Have All The Fun?” ads that Nissan did back in the late 80s, which in turn were ripped off from Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
Moderator’s note:
Since the topic is television this would be likely bone for the media hounds over in Cafe Society.
Movin’ it on over…
TVeblen,
IMHO mod
John Diehl does look good in those vintage suits.
Y’know, if they’re going to go to all the trouble of summoning the spirit of Harley Earl (it has no second e, by the way), they ought to at least make it worth his time to materialize by building cars the way he’d want them too.
If Harley Earl really came back I bet he’d take one look at the new designs and spit.
They slapped portholes on one model and that’s it! That doesn’t count, those cheaters!
For the record, besides being one of Buick’s most stellar designers, he also singlehandedly came up with the idea of having car shows featuring concept cars. He did some other stuff, too.
I believe the holes are officially called “cruiserline ventiports.” If not, they should be.
I wonder how Harley Earl’s family feels about those ads? Pretty creepy, pretending a guy has come back from the cold dark grave to hawk your crappy cars. Not as bad as turning Colonel Sanders into a cartoon, I suppose. Maybe Wendy’s will feature Dave Thomas’ rotting corpse in its next ad. (I understand the current CEO of Wal-Mart drinks coffee out of Sam Walton’s skull.)
“Ventiports,” at least, although I’ve never seen the “cruiserline” part before. I’ve also seen them referred to as “portholes” in vintage automobile literature, so I guess “portholes” is the generic name and “ventiports” is the word when Buick does 'em?
Adage.com review
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=36660
my response:
Bob passed your e-mail along to me to consider for publication in Ad Age as a letter to the editor. To do that I need:
Your OK
The city and state where you live or work
A phone number where you can be reached for routine confirmation purposes.
Thanks!
Rick Gordon
Viewpoint Editor
Advertising Age
360 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL. 60601
312-649-5241 (voice)
312-649-5331 (Fax)
rgordon@crain.com
>>> Bob Garfield 12/16/02 09:12AM >>>
bea arthur!
excellent choice.
i’m passing this on to my bosses, for the salary drive.
thanks. and merry christmas to you and yourn.
– bg
Bob -
I’ve always enjoyed reading your articles over the
past few years, but have never been inspired to
respond to one. I think your assessment of Buick’s
campaign is dead on. The concept is terrible in my
opinion.
“I’ve come back to build you a great car”. Okay,
fine. So where the hell is it? Buick to me screams
“boring older white guy generic sedan”. Show me a
barely street legal roadster, show me an
environmentally threatening ass kicking SUV - but all
the advertising in the world isn’t going to convince
me that you have any designers worth a damn in your
R&D department.
Tiger was also a poor choice - suuuure, I believe
Tiger drives a Buick. (Much less has a garage filled
to the roof with 'em) Maybe they should have picked
Bea Arthur instead.
Perhaps we should hire that lady from Poltergiest and
send Mr. Earl back to the abyss from which he was
summoned.
Just my two cents worth…
Daylon Walton, Advertising, UT at Austin '96
kinda neat huh? Maybe I’ll get published!
D.
Whenever I see those commercials, I always picture him dying of a heroin overdose with a needle sticking out of his arm on Miami Vice.
OMG, I just admitted that I used to watch Miami Vice!
I know. You’re thinking “What’s with this responding to a 20 year old post???”
Well, I thought about the same commercial for a thread on Facebook, and went hunting for the commercial. Yup, it was VW, but it was based on the 1949 auto show, and even features a guy named Maclean Stevenson before he got MAS*H-ified. It’s the second commercial in this collection.
Enjoy:
