Figure 1.--This was a rather strange ad. It was to promote Dodge cars. Dodge was a major automobile manufacturer at the time. But the illustrated ad here is is difficult to understand, it shows girls at an orphanage getting into a Dodge sedan. More commonly, the children depicted in car ads at the time were more used to illustrate popularity with affluent families. It is the only car ad we know of picturing their cars transporting poor orphans. Usually the ads tried to picture glamour. They seem to be very well dressed orphans. Notice the streamers on their hats.

Henry Ford began the mass production of cars with the Model-T Tin Lizzie (1907). At the time the United States was the most important industrial country in the World. Ford and the Model-T launched America into the industrial stratosphere. By the 1920s America was no longer just the greatest industrial power, but was on its way to developing an industrial base equal to most of Europe combined. And the automobile was at the center of that transformation. Dodge was one of Ford's major competitors. The Dodge Brothers y began building complete automobiles (1914), predating the founding of the Chrysler Corporation which eventually acquired Dodge. Ford's resistance to meeting consumer demand that did not have utilitarian value gave competitors like Dodge a chance to break into the market. This was a rather strange ad. It was to promote Dodge cars. Dodge was a major automobile manufacturer at the time. But the illustrated ad here is is difficult to understand, it shows girls at an orphanage getting into a Dodge sedan. More commonly, the children depicted in car ads at the time were more used to illustrate popularity with affluent families. It is the only car ad we know of picturing their cars transporting poor orphans. Usually the ads tried to picture glamour. They seem to be very well dressed orphans. Notice the streamers on their hats. And this was during the Roaring Twenties--famous for its excesses. You have to wonder just what the marketing strategy was here. Dodge always stressed its engineering prowess. We do not understand how orphans touched upon that line. Dodge became an important part of the American Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, NAZI Reich Marshall Herman Göring dismissed America's consumer based industry, famously telling Field Marshall Romel, "The Americans only know how to make refrigerators and razor blades." Dodge during the War produced over 380,000 jeeps and trucks providing the U.S. Army and Allied armies unprecedented mobility. That was more trucks than the Germans built, and Doddge was just one company. And unlike the Germans, the Americans had the fuel to run its vehicles.

Created: 8:13 PM 4/19/2025
Last updated: 8:13 PM 4/19/2025