Great (?) Commercials--Subaru of America's "The New Look" (1969)
In the grand cinematic tradition of the action-packed Corvair in Action!, the romantic Koers Amerika met de Holland-America Line, the harrowing Death to Weeds, the insanely comic Inside Story of Modern Gasoline, and the groundbreaking classic Your Name Here, comes director Malcolm Bricklin's 1969 magnum opus, The New Look:
My comments come after the jump.
With that in mind, let's proceed with the deconstruction. You can skip the over-long title sequence and fast-forward to 0:40, where the fun starts.
1:09 -- Car-spotters alert! We have a first-generation Mustang and a '68 Cougar in the foreground, and what looks like a pair of Ramblers ('58 Rambler Six and '66-68 American?) in the background.
1:11 -- Nice trick, showoff. Now how you gonna open the doors?
1:14 -- The Subie ducks between a Buick Electra 225 and a Chevy Impala.
1:22 -- Hey! It's Grooviechick McBellbottom!
1:30 -- "Windows that open ... STANDARD. Storage space ... STANDARD. Reclining front seats ... STANDARD." But why stop there? He should keep going: "Wheels and tires ... STANDARD. An engine ... STANDARD. Transmission ... STANDARD."
1:42 -- "We call it cheap and ugly." When this is the best tag line your "mad men" can come up with, you know you're in trouble.
1:57 -- "And all types of people are driving Subarus." Stereotypical Italian chefs!
2:00 -- Vegas showgirls!
2:05 -- Hippies!
2:07 -- The way the narrator says the phrase "groovy chicks," it's about as convincing a show of hipness as Richard M. Nixon saying "Sock it to me!"
2:29 -- Gratuitous bikini cheescake alert!
2:47 -- The Super Sport! It has a tachometer! Can your nerves handle the excitement?
2:56 -- As the Super Sport makes its thrilling full-power speed run up the dirt road, the music bed is straight out of some screwball romantic comedy made in 1956.
3:10 -- Oh, goody! A tire-squealing race down the drag strip in a car that turns a 28-second quarter.
3:25 -- Note that the yellow car's right rear wheel is coming off the pavement in hard cornering.
3:32 -- "... Grand Prix excitement!" The 360 goes from pavement-plowing understeer to tail-happy oversteer in a snap--and nearly wipes out the right-of-way fence!
3:52 -- Note the awesome cargo capacity of the Subaru baby pickup truck.
4:07 -- You want a minivan? This is a mini minivan!
4:37 -- One cannot help but wonder how they got the tent and the people in the same van.
4:54 -- As you "hang on to your hat," take note of the Pontiac Safari wagon in the still photo.
5:22 -- Note the parked cars, including the "Forward Look" hardtop.
5:44 -- Brace yourself for the thrilling hatch-closing and door-opening sequence, with guest star Bradley the Basset Hound in his most memorable role.
6:03 -- In all seriousness, the "Star line" you see here is the direct ancestor of today's Outback and Forester. The spare tire in the engine bay was a Subaru trademark through the 1970s.
6:24 -- "... in the back, where you keep a few of your favorite things." Like what? Bright copper kettles? Warm woolen mittens? Brown paper packages tied up with strings? Reel-to-reel tape recordings of Julie Andrews and the cast of The Sound of Music singing the Subaru jingle?
And so, as the fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge sinks slowly into the west, we bid a fond farewell to the 1970 model year Subaru product line, from the inadequate 360 to the prophetic Star 3 wagon. As the narrator said, "What else do you need?"
--Cookie the Dog's Owner
That Car Guy on January 13, 2012 at 08:08 AM
Cookie, if I may, here's a little more deconstruction...
1:17: I've seen Smart Cars park that way... even two of them in one space. "Now how you gonna open the doors?" You don't need to. Just get out through the opening rear windows that are Standard!
1:26: "Wrinkled rear seat covers. Standard."
2:39: "Sports car styling." Where?
3:06: I wonder how long it took that driver to get the dirt out of his shoes?
3:34: "...Grand Prix excitement." No wonder the driver nearly lost it there. Somebody parked a van on the track.
3:45: I like a TV you can put a truck in.
3:54: I think the Subaru Truck has the world's smallest front crumple zone.
4:18: "...as an "In-plant communications and delivery vehicle." And forever it should have remained that way.
"4:37: -- One cannot help but wonder how they got the tent and the people in the same van." Oh, it's easy. Just make two trips.
5:42: Concerning the "beauty shots" of the Star 3 Wagon, somebody needs to tell the cameraman that the drinks are for after the shoot, not before or during.
6:45: Most surprisingly, that shot was from the Marin Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge is actually sinking slowly into the southeast there.
But seriously, 1969, was the beginning of the Japanese car invasion into America. At 6:52: "They're here to stay." Have more true words ever been spoken?
Anthony Cagle on January 13, 2012 at 08:48 AM
That whole thing is soooo ripe for the Pop-Up Video treatment.
John B on January 13, 2012 at 05:23 PM
Cookie...
A brief correction...at 1:09 it's a 1968 Ford LTD the car parks next to, not a Cougar.
I wonder how many cars were rolled in the race track sequence?
And my favorite..."Back seat appointments: STANDARD".
I'd hope they'd include a back seat.
"Storage space: STANDARD".
Nice to have. But we have to remember that on early Ford Mavericks, the glovebox was an option. Base cars just had a hole.
Mochi Mochi on January 13, 2012 at 08:26 PM
I would totally buy a subaru 360 truck or van. the 360Gt is of course amazing. I can see having a full stable of these beauties. the effect of getting them all together in a single location might create a gravity well of cuteness that might implode into some kind of black hole or other catastrophic singularity, but those are the breaks.
I found the sound track interesting. A jazz version of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky. It's much better executed than a lot of the jazz arrangements of this suite. It seems to have had some chord progressions altered to be reminiscent of famous japanese folk tunes.
nyzctin on January 14, 2012 at 05:35 AM
Pity the poor ad agency that had to come up with something postitve to say about the Subaru 360. What a death trap, I suppose that was "standard" also.
The Star was actually not all that bad looking. I don't seem to recall ever seeing many (any?) of these little cars on the road back then.
Aaron on January 14, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Subaru kept the spare tire under the hood above the engine well into the 80's. My 81 GL and 84 BRAT both had the spare tire there.
Greg on January 15, 2012 at 07:43 PM
Love all your comments; tears in my eyes from laughing. And credit the eventually famous Malcolm Bricklin?
frank hill on January 16, 2012 at 05:16 PM
consistently, time after time the best commercials bar none.
kenny on January 17, 2012 at 12:12 PM
I always wanted the van. There is an electric one in town. Love it! Any camper this size is my last remaining Lust to have.
MadHungarian on January 18, 2012 at 09:17 PM
This is a bi-coastal film. The first 360 you see, up through the chef scene, has a Pennsylvania plate on it. Malcolm Bricklin's Subaru of America offices were for a time located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, just across the city line west of Philly. It's the beginning of the fabled "Main Line" upper-class suburbs, and I'm pretty sure that the leafy suburbs the 360 is tooling around in that segment are on the Main Line. The 360 and all the other cars seen in this part have a square sticker on the left corner of the windshield of the size and shape of PA inspection stickers of the time. And the girl in the reddish top and grey skirt looks like she was plucked straight off the Bryn Mawr campus. After that the action shifts to California, although curiously the Subarus don't always have front plates on them, required in CA.
MadHungarian on January 18, 2012 at 09:27 PM
Oh, one more Main Line 360 story. I know the area because I attended Haverford College in the late 1970's. There was a guy who had a 360, and one of the things he used to do was drive over to the Bryn Mawr campus and drive on roads/paths that weren't supposed to be accessible to cars. He could do that because the 360 just barely fit between two bollards that were intended to block the access from the street. I don't know why they didn't do that in the film; I'm sure the bollards were there in '69 and Grey Skirt Chick would have been impressed. Actually I do know why. The president of Bryn Mawr at the time would have definitely been Not Amused.