Why The 'Not Your Father's Oldsmobile' Campaign May Be What Killed The Brand

The period immediately following the 1970s oil crises wasn't nicknamed the "Malaise Era" for no reason. Many American car brands were forced to undergo radical changes in their manufacturing processes. This led to various experiments to try and keep companies afloat, with this era giving rise to some bizarre creative decisions from American automakers. For instance, Oldsmobile tried to repurpose a diesel engine in its Cutlass model, which ultimately flopped. Then there's the infamous Chevette, which was essentially created when GM was in full-blown panic mode and needed something that could sell like hotcakes.

By the 1980s, Oldsmobile was sharing GM's lackluster image and had garnered a reputation for being — bluntly — cars for the elderly. They weren't particularly bad cars, per se, but they were viewed as cookie-cutter, badge-engineered, and boring. The brand was on the verge of losing its audience because its main demographic was aging, and its appeal to younger buyers was nonexistent.

In a desperate effort to curb plummeting sales, GM launched the "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" campaign in 1988. This featured several commercials showcasing new models that were meant to appeal to a younger generation. However, it was far too little, far too late to alter Oldsmobile's fate. Ultimately, it may have even hastened its demise.

Oldsmobile attempted to draw in new buyers through a self-deprecating ad campaign that featured past-their-prime celebrities and their largely unknown children, neither of which rang any bells with the target demographic. In the commercial for the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass, for example, viewers watched "Mission Impossible" star Peter Graves drive the car through explosions in a chase scene. After the driver makes it to safety, he pulls off a mask to reveal that it was actually Graves' daughter, Amanda, behind the wheel the whole time. A choir then sings, "This is not your father's Oldsmobile," and promotes the vehicle as part of the "New Generation of Oldsmobile."

These commercials were so bizarre that they failed to connect with both younger and older audiences. Nevertheless, Oldsmobile held onto this advertising campaign all the way until its dying days in the late 1990s. However, it was purely delaying the inevitable: Oldsmobile eventually flopped, closing up shop after its last ever production car, the Alero, left the factory on April 29, 2004.

Ultimately, the campaign created a paradox. Similar to Richard Nixon's "I am Not a Crook!" speech, vehemently denying something tends to paradoxically reinforce its opposite. In Oldsmobile's case, trying to say newer models were "not for your father" only aged them more. It isolated buyers who actually could afford newer models, without attracting the newer generation to take their place.

This ultimately resulted in a car brand which appealed to no one, and sales figures started to reflect that. The 1980s regularly saw sales between 800,000 to 1 million units before those numbers started to drop. After 1990, Oldsmobile never again sold more than 500,000 units per year, no matter what campaigns it tried to enact to recoup losses. This can all be traced back to the late 1980s, when Oldsmobile unfortunately learned this lesson the hard way: Don't alienate your main source of income. It's a shame as well, considering the proud 100-plus year history of the company and the many important moments Oldsmobile enjoyed over that time.