Jim Wangers, the ad boy He passed away peacefully in the early morning of April 29, 2023. He was 96 years old.
Wangers graciously joined Campbell-Ewald as a copywriter as the brand transitioned from a strict member of the “Low-Priced Three” to “The Hot One.” He tried to convince his superiors that NASCAR Speed Week was a great opportunity to promote the new 180-horse Power Pack for the small-block V8, but Wangers was told that “Chevrolet doesn’t like racing.” He went to Daytona on his own money and documented the success of independent Chevy racers, but the reaction from his superiors was still overwhelming, and his bosses felt that Speed Week was some kind of outlaw racing, not unusual in an era when the car scene continued. that it is full of undesirable people.
As word of the Daytona spread in the media, dealerships were unprepared to serve the fans interested in high-performance Chevrolets. The news eventually made its way back to Chevrolet head office, so Campbell-Ewald was forced to recognize the marketing opportunity, and lo and behold, the interest in Wangers’ report got the attention it deserved.
Chevrolet will never again be the master of style, design and performance unmatched in the industry. In fact, with Chevrolet’s success and General Motors owning half the market, GM doubled down on the 1957 Association of Automobile Manufacturers ban on racing in 1963 and pulled out of racing to keep the Feds away from potential monopolistic charges.
Of all the GM brands, Pontiac has a unique reputation as a sporty brand, even more so than Chevrolet. With the Tri-Power and Super Duty trademarks, Pontiac’s investment in racing appeared to be for naught. “The truth was that we were taking Pontiac performance off the track, as the Corporation wanted, and putting it on the street” — with the GTO — “as the Corporation didn’t want,” Wangers wrote in his book. Glorious days. The story has been told many times, but Wangers has a unique role as Pontiac’s unofficial spokesperson, with one hand on Pontiac’s pulse thanks to his close relationship with chief engineer John DeLorean and the other on Pontiac’s pulse. After all, Wangers had won the 1960 NHRA Top Stock Eliminator title in a Royal Pontiac-prepped Catalina, so he knew what was going on around Detroit-area tracks and local highways like Woodward and Telegraph. (It was still part of the street scene in the 1980s.)
When DeLorean moved to Chevrolet, the new people at Pontiac didn’t take kindly to the Wangers. In fact, there were already many signs out there because the high-performance market was crowded. Wangers took this as a sign and tried his hand at running a car dealership in Milwaukee. When that didn’t work out, he went back to Detroit and founded Motortown, a shop that gave smaller cars like the Mustang II, the Pontiac LeMans Sport Coupe, the AMC Hornet, and the Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen twins a muscle car image. from a previous car. era and turned them into the Cobra II, Can Am, Hornet AMX, Volare Road Runner and Aspen R/T. Even cars from the 1980s got the Motortown vibe, including the Dodge Charger 2.2. Even when it seemed like there wasn’t any, Wangers never forgot that horsepower and passion ruled Detroit.
Jim Wangers was clearly a great man, but his greatest achievement was founding Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc. (AMCI) in 1981. This company has certified USAC tests/comparisons for marketing use – for example, claims such as “Best in Class” in an ad metric can be backed up with AMCI documentation.
Nine years ago, he was diagnosed with dementia and possibly Alzheimer’s, and five years ago he moved into a facility in Orange County, California. Of course, these are not the moments that define Jim. Of course, he is famous for being the godfather of the GTO, but there is much more to the man who has dedicated nearly 60 years to the automotive industry, the car hobby and philanthropy. No matter what your brand loyalty is, your little fan’s heart probably owes a debt of gratitude to Jim Wangers.
