Females and facias

Beautiful women and sex-appeal play a prominent part in modern advertising and as it is the female who often influences choice of a car, it is hardly surprising that model-girls find plenty of jobs amongst automobile publicists. For example, there is the calendar sent to us by a well-known racing driver, which makes my secretary blush, and a less pornographic approach by the makers of the excellent Lambretta motor-scooter, who feature on their calendar young ladies whose clothes, shall we say, are well suited to the warm sunshine of the land where Lambrettas are made.

It has fallen to Mr. Denis Fastnedge, Publicity Manager to Smiths Motor Accessories Ltd., to issue a series of tasteful advertisements which, although each one features an attractive girl, give offence to no-one and may safely be studied in front of one’s wife and children.

What Fastnedge has done is to issue a series of publicity pictures of essentially modern cars, each car accompanied by a charming (and appropriately-dressed) young woman, together with a photograph of the car’s facia panel which, naturally, displays Smiths instruments. The effect is so attractive that we live in hopes that at the next Earls Court Show these advertisements, which go by the title of  “Worth Looking At …,”  will be available in book form for the edification of persons who are discerning in the matter of automotive and female form, or car and satorial fashion.

To give a few examples of the Fastnedge approach, we have the rather solid and self-assured-looking 3-litre Rover emerging from a field which one would have thought more suited to a Land Rover, the gate propped open for it by a charming young brunette wearing white high-heeled shoes (quite unsuitable for fieldwork, a white head-band, and a straight-jacket two-piece suit; you see what we mean  —  our racing driver friend would have omitted the suit.

The Rover’s facia has a 160 m.p.h. Smiths speedometer and a matching three-window dial but it lacks a rev-counter. The 15/60 Wolseley, about which there has been so much controversy, serves as a seat for a smiling model-girl in straight skirt and high-neck jumper, her jewellery confined to a wide bracelet on her right wrist.

For the Jaguar Mk. IX a sophisticated young women in raincoat and head-scarf leans nonchalantly on the roof, while the Jaguar’s facia is most tastefully done in wood, with separate dials and a proper rev-counter, as well as a 120 m.p.h. speedometer. A homely but happy young woman wearing a two-piece suit in spotted material offsets the new Austin A 55, the Smiths instrumentation of which is functionally simple. Things become more interesting with the new M.G. Magnette, which is accompanied by a very attractive girl of sporting demeanour, clad in a knee-length check tweed skirt, with a kerchief tucked into the neck of her long-sleeved sweater. Oh, and the M.G. has neat, hooded instruments, but lacks a rev-counter. Finally, there is a delightful young woman in a simple black-and-white striped sleeveless frock who has obviously done well for herself, for she is posing between the tail fins of two of the new Fords. The instrumentation on the latest Ford facia, by the way, consists of a Smiths wide-span 100 m.p.h. speedometer flanked by fuel and temperature gauges.

This series proves that Mr. Fastnedge has a very good eye for style and fashion, and we await his future advertisements with keen anticipation. Certainly they represent an excellent means of drawing attention to the many well-known cars which communicate with their drivers through the medium of Smiths instruments.  —  W.B.