At the end of the war that introduced the public to the jeep, Willys-Overland knew that the public wanted to own a jeep of their own. Before the war was over, plans had begun to design and construct a civilian model. However, they also knew that the jeep would have to be cleverly marketed beyond the returning GI who would long for his faithful companion.
The jeep was marketed more fully as a worker than as a leisure time buddy in the early days. Willys was successful at that pursuit and the jeep soon became the best friend and more importantly, co-worker of the farmer, the rancher, the mechanic and of the public service worker. Kaiser and later, AMC continued this marketing strategy.
I find myself lucky to have come across a small treasure trove of ads from two magazines that covered articles written for the public service sector, “The American City” and “Public Works.” I’ll begin with the earliest ads today from 1955 and work my way up to 1975 over the course of the month of December.
You can click here to view the album of all the full sized ads.
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