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Perhaps the industry's most widely known miscalculations of the mass market was Ford’s introductions of the 1958 Edsel. The Edsel failed to attract consumer interest despite heavy investment in styling and promotion. In 1958, Ford introduced a family size car, the Edsel.  The Edsel was criticized by may, as it did not look as visually appealing or luxurious as many of the smaller cars. In addition, it was overpriced.  It was only produced for three model years and it never sold well, so it was discontinued.  This lead to two viewpoints towards mass culture. One where mass design was seen as a form of exploitation manipulated as it were from above and masking the desire for corporate profit. On the other hand, it was seen as being in touch with the everyday experience of ordinary folk, a popular expression of the desire for individuality for a diverse audience.

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Key Designer- Virgil Exner: VP of Styling for Chrysler in 1952.

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Key Designer- Virgil Exner: VP of Styling for Chrysler in 1952.

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Exner focused his designs on long, low profile cars with emphasis on angles and tapered forms, but he minimized the rounded panels and swollen. The effect was enhanced through decorative features like “eyebrows” above headlights. In the industry this was known as a look forward.

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Ralph Nader- Critic of the Automobile Industry

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Ralph Nader- Critic of the Automobile Industry

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Automobile corporations in the late 1960s and 1970s were ignoring the interests of the consumers they were supposed to be serving. Nader wrote the book Unsafe at Any Speed: the designed-in dangers of the American automobile, which attacked General Motors for neglecting significant safety issues in the design of their rear-engine compact Corvair. Ironically, the Corvair was introduced in 1960 and was Motor Trend’s “Car of the Year”. Nader claimed that GM had ignored evidence that the vehicle tended to spin out under certain road conditions. Nader’s book was influential because it emphasized the fact that General Motors placed all its efforts and capital in making stylish designs while compromising safety. Nader’s claims did not bring an end to any of the “Big Three” auto companies’ emphasis upon styling. However, his findings increased consumer awareness and initiated legislation to monitor vehicle safety.

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Key Designer- Raymond Loewy: Independent designer for Studebaker 

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Key Designer- Raymond Loewy: Independent designer for Studebaker 

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Raymond Loewy’s firm was was an independent car designer from Studebaker, who they designed cars for, so while all of the other car manufacturing companies were forced to close during WWII, Loewy’s firm was able to work on their designs, allowing Studebaker be the first to release a new design after WWII, in 1947.  Lowey criticized Earl’s tailfins, saying that they added no function to the car.  Instead, he worked to make cars more aerodynamic by implementing sloped roofs on his car designs.  In 1963, Loewy was asked to luxury design a car that could fit four people, the Studebaker Avanti, but it received a lot of criticism from consumers, as it was not as visually appealing.

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Many rebelled against inhibitions and prohibitions such as skirt lengths, marijuana use, freedom of speech, and racial discrimination. The pop movement of the 1960s was associated with an open lifestyle, non-conformism, and rebelliousness by some subculture groups. Marginalized groups of the 1960s, such as racial minorities, women, and the gay community had a strong desire for acknowledgement, recognition, and identity. These youthful groups of the 1960s suffered through issues of free speech and racial and gender inequality. These problems were brought to public attention through protest and exposure in the mass media. The culture of 1950s and 1960s youth influenced the designs and popularity of many automobiles of the 1960s, such as the Ford Mustang and Ford Thunderbird.

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The Ford Mustang appealed to a youth-orientated audience due to its tapered concave cutaway door panels and its ability to push the speed limit. Youth at the time tested the limits of inherited values and norms of “proper” behavior.

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Ford’s Thunderbird sports car in 1954 was a small, two-seater that was designed for buyers that were interested in the excitement of the open road, rather than for family purposes. This rebellious and courageous attitude was popular among youth in the time of the 1950s. This ideology paved the way for Ford's designs of the 1960s. 1960s designs began to turn rebellious and energetic in nature, thanks to the rise of rock and roll music and designers such as Mary Quant.

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Key Designer- Harley Earl: Chief of General Motor Styling Department at the time of Sloan.

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Key Designer- Harley Earl: Chief of General Motor Styling Department at the time of Sloan.

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Earl preferred longer and lower bodies for GM cars. He added chrome accents, wraparound bumpers, and tailfins. These designs embraced the theme of obsolescence because they could be easily changed annually without any complicated changes to the chassis and framework of the car. Earl’s designers made prototypes in clay rather than wood or metal to achieve a higher quality sculpture. His tail fin design served as a “visible receipt” for the consumer’s dollar. Additionally, his Cadillac tailfin design was taken from his fascination with the P-38 fighter plane and its dual tail fins. When it was introduced to lower end models in 1955, average consumers felt like they had a piece of luxury in their automobile.

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Key Influence- Alfred Sloan: President of General Motors in the early 1950s.

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Key Influence- Alfred Sloan: President of General Motors in the early 1950s.

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Sloan renewed his plan to introduce new styling changes annually. However, Sloan kept standardized parts for the chassis the same to minimize costs. These mechanical elements could be shared among GM’s many product lines. One of Sloan's dreams was to create a vehicle “for every purse”. His company created automobiles in both the luxury and lower ends of the market.

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Smaller automobile companies soon were not able to differentiate themselves from the rest of the market. A few large corporations controlled the industry because of this. After failed attempts for these independent companies to enter the automobile market, the “Big Three” giants, Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford continued to dominate the industry in the 1960s. Designers, especially Brooks Stevens, generated demand for new products by making current products seem “old”. This strategy was called "obsolescence". Automobile designers would make small, noticeable tweaks to their automobiles annually to keep consumers interested. This ideology developed a "throwaway culture" because automobile designers created the demand to "own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than necessary” (Raizman, 312). The popularity of the “dream car” rose during the 1950s. Car buffs would often customize their own automobiles to match advertisements displaying dream cars, which were not available to purchase. Americans eventually began to buy foreign cars in order to avoid the American marketing strategy of planned obsolescence. Americans exercised a freedom of choice that fueled the sales of the small rear-engine air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle.

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Automobile production was mostly halted during WWII, but the years following the war saw market saturation and slow rates of growth in the 1950s. However, the middle and working class of the United States began to benefit from increased production and higher wages during the 1950s. This was partially due to the growth of the residential housing and home furnishings market. The popularity of suburban housing fueled the demand for automobiles so people could commute to the workplace. Additionally, the technology of V8 engines took advantage of inexpensive gas prices. The technology behind automobiles was so influential that electronics produced during the 1950s varied in form, color, and display to resemble automobile dashboards, grilles, and two-tone color combinations.