4.9 advertisement
AMC ran a commercial where the claimed some terrific MPG numbers for their Pacer (or was it the Gremlin?). They ran 5 Pacers on a cross-country run, all highway driving. They ran in a line, tailgating each other with about a foot between them. Every 15 minutes the first car would move over a lane and drop back and pull in at the end of the line. They over-inflated the tires and did a front end alignment on each one to have zero camber and zero tow-in when going straight.
Then there was the VW Beatle commercial. It was poking fun at the claims of some manufacturers. They started out talking about how they had made some "minor" changes to their Beatle and were able to get 98 MPG. Then they showed the car. They had cut away the center of every body panel so the car was a "stick figure" outline of a Beatle. They put skinny little motorcycle tires on it and they had a horse jockey driving it (in his jockey uniform). Then they made some comment about other manufacturers making silly claims, then showed their regular Beatle and gave its real MPG numbers.
The good old days, when "advertising" meant being the most creative BS artist.








