Ford Institutional Message Advertising Campaign
37 artifacts in this set
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "A Nation's Institution Pledged to the Nation's Service"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. Here the distinctive Highland Park plant power house dwarfs teeming workers on Woodward Avenue.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "An Industrial Epic"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. This panoramic ad pulls together a broad sampling of the equipment, activities, and skills deployed within the Ford organization.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Building Men as Well as Motors"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. This ad, avoiding the gritty drama running through much of the series, emphasizes the company's investment in its most important resource: people.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "For the People and Posterity"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. At the heart of this ad is a notion dear to modern environmentalists -- and long valued by farmers -- a denial of the very idea of "waste."
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "From Source to Service"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. This ad makes the company's vast reach even more apparent: Ford-owned railroads, rail equipment, and mines all extended the company's independence.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Iron for Unparalleled Production"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. This ad emphasizes the never-ceasing, ever-flowing nature of the processes intertwined at the Rouge.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Monumental Enterprise"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. Here the Rouge plant's power house and blast furnaces, serve as backdrop to the storage bins alongside the plant's boat slip.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Mountains of Raw Material"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. Here a desolate landscape of iron ore stored at the Rouge plant underscores the company's commitment to basic manufacturing processes.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Opening the Highways to All Mankind"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. The final ad of the series emphasizes that the company is a transformative, service oriented, and mission-based organization -- optimistic and future-focused.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Organized Economies"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. By this, the fourteenth installment of the series, readers would understand the Model T in the context of the enormity and complexity of the Ford operation.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Prodigies of Power"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. Here the sculptural bulk of a steam turbine -- Ford-designed and Ford-built -- makes a convincing case for the company's energy independence.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Pushing Aside Precedent"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. When this ad appeared, the Rouge glass plant with its pioneering processes had been in operation a little over a year.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Saving Millions by Robbing Smoke of its Waste"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. By combining an apocalyptic industrial scene and orderly flowchart this ad suggests the extreme range of activities fundamental to the Rouge plant.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "The Nearest Service is Ford Service"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. This is one of just two ads in the series to prominently feature the company's core product in its artwork.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "The Spirit of Progress"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. Here the company proudly describes its new experimental engineering facility. Designed by Albert Kahn, its frontage incorporated Henry Ford's choice of inventors and scientists.
1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Vital Resources that Cannot Fail"
Advertisement
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. Rather than promoting the Model T specifically, the ads aimed to convey the company's scale and philosophy. This ad is a reminder that Henry Ford pursued many technologies and production methods that we would now recognize as renewable or sustainable.
A Huge Dynamo, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. The artwork for the 8th ad is quite minimal: sculptural mass in a sketchy setting, awaiting its accompanying text.
Banquet Program, "Profit Sharing, Ford Motor Company, 1914-1919"
Program (Document)
Several threads of industrial imagery can be traced in this cover illustration. The combination of nature, a lone figure, and distant industry recall Arkwright's Cotton Mills by Night by Joseph Wright; the cloudlike mass of exhaust from the distant Highland Park power plant is a reminder that ranks of chimneys and skies of factory smoke were frequently captured by artists to suggest industrial progress.
Blast Furnace, 1924
Painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. This painting, one of two created for the 11th ad, conveys the heat and scale of the Rouge blast furnace operation.
Coal Train on the Curve, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. The imbalance in this painting's composition is a reminder that the artwork was intended to be part of a published whole.
Family Time at Home, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. This painting appeared as two segments -- losing some of its content in the process -- when reproduced as part of the 15th ad.
Ford Foundry, 1924
Painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. In this painting, one of two scenes used in the 11th ad, a foundry worker, obscured by a ladle, directs molten iron into moving molds.
Ford Industries, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. This painting pulls together a variety of Ford locations and activities: a gritty panorama designed to convey the breadth of Ford's industrial capabilities.
Getting Directions at Ford Dealership, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. This painting is for one of just two ads in the series where the Model T -- the company's core product -- figures with high prominence.
Powerhouse, River, and Dam, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. The restricted palette employed in the original art was imposed by the "duotone" process used for color reproduction.
Letter from Edsel Ford to Wetmore Hodges regarding Ford's 1924 Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, April 30, 1924
Letter (Correspondence)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Letter from Wetmore Hodges to Edsel Ford regarding Ford's 1924 Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, April 12, 1924
Letter (Correspondence)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Memo from Edsel Ford Announcing the New Ford Motor Company Advertising Department, August 10, 1923
Letter (Correspondence)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Memo from Ford Advertising Department about the 1924 Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, January 20, 1925
Memorandum
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Memo from Ford Advertising Department about the 1924 Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, June 17, 1924
Memorandum
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Memo from Ford Advertising Department about the 1924 Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, June 17, 1924
Memorandum
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Memo from Ford Advertising Department Discontinuing Ford's 1924 Institutional Message Advertising Campaign in Newspapers, September 30, 1924
Memorandum
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen "institutional" advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. More in the vein of public relations statements than advertising, the campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the company's wide-ranging activities and to explain its overall mission.
Advertisement with Institutional Message from Cadillac, Division of General Motors, "The Human Side of Cadillac," 1925
Advertisement
The 1924-25 Ford Motor Company Institutional advertising campaign -- sixteen lavish advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines -- mapped out the company's philosophy using an overview of the company's diverse activities and capabilities. This Cadillac ad, a rebuttal taking a deliberately contrary view to Ford's approach, asserts that it is Cadillac's workers -- rather than machinery and...
Etching, "The Valley of Work," Monongahela River Valley, Homestead, Pennsylvania, 1923
Print (Visual work)
Industrial designer Otto Kuhler's etchings of begrimed industry sprang from an optimistic response to technology. This gritty, smoke-plumed landscape is Homestead, Pennsylvania, whose steel mills led to the creation of such structures as the George Washington Bridge. The same optimism led to Kuhler's colorful streamlined designs for the Milwaukee, Lehigh, and other railroads in the 1930s.
Ford Rouge Glass Furnace, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. This painting was not used in the published campaign: an alternate view appeared in the 9th ad in the series.
Ford Rouge Glass Plant, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned artwork that accompanied the descriptive text. This painting was not used in the published campaign: an alternate view appeared in the 9th ad in the series.
Visions of Tomorrow, 1924
Oil painting (Visual work)
In 1924-25 the Ford Motor Company ran a series of sixteen dramatic advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman magazines. The effectiveness of the ads was due in large part to the specially commissioned accompanying artwork. This, the painting used in the final ad, is the most memorable and inspiring -- a vision of family, mobility, vast distance, and the lofty possibilities offered by Ford's industrial...
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