Discover 1950’s Packard Television Advertising Campaigns

Packard Motor Car Company began showing television advertising in the mid-1950s. They featured Packard engineering to promote an advanced product that was attractively priced. Today, we commonly see ads as short as six seconds, so the TV commercials from the 1950 seem extraordinarily long to us. Imagine the family sitting around a small screen showing only black and white images! Only three channels! No internet! No remote! (How did we survive?) One of the top magazines of the day was TV Guide, a weekly listing of shows. The top TV programs of 1955 included The $64,000 Question, Disneyland, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Dragnet, and The Ed Sullivan Show. The TV was new, exciting, and brought the movie theater into the living room.

The Purpose of Packard Television Advertising

Effective marketing on TV programs could mean sales success or failure in the extremely competitive automotive marketplace. TV ads reached new audiences who wanted to purchase cars. All the manufacturers, not just Packard, focused on a car’s features, and usually included an announcer describing the vehicle. The car was the selling point, not the experience. This was the height of the post-war baby boom, the suburbanization of the country, and longer commutes.

So put on your Howdy Doody hat, sing the Mickey Mouse Club song, and try your Gold Star Stage Coach. Or better yet, enjoy these 1950s TV commercials from other brands to compare to the Packard ads.

Questions? Email or call (937) 226-1710

Can you guess the $64,000 answer to “what was the best car ever produced in the United States?” If you said “Packard” you win!

Packard Television Advertising. TV Guide $64,000 Question
Skip to Videos

  • The New Packard Caribbean, “America’s Smartest Sportscar”

  • The New Packard Clipper

    The Packard Clipper is an automobile series built by the Packard Motor Car Company (and by the later Studebaker-Packard Corporation) for model years 1941–1942, 1946–1947, and 1953–1957. It was named for a type of sailing ship, called a clipper.

  •

    1956 Packard Clipper Suspension

    In a Packard with standard suspension, with no connection between front and rear suspensions, the springs and shocks keep the car steady and prevent the front and rear ends of the car from most wild up and down movement when driving on rough roads. When hitting a bump, the front of the car goes up and down in a controlled fashion (if all of the springs and shocks are in good condition), and then the rear of the car goes up and down when it encounters the same bump.