That was the question Frank Aberdene kept on asking his colleagues. The way he remembers it, the ad campaign for the 1978 Lincoln Versailles was the toughest one he had ever worked on.
The problem was that Lincoln’s new compact looked like a Ford Granada with an overabundance of J. C. Whitney adds ons, yet it was given the brand’s highest price tag. To make matters worse, the catsup oracles decided to name the car after a grand French palace — a name more appropriate for a big car. Not surprisingly, the Versailles was ridiculed after it was introduced in 1977.
What to do? Frank decided that he should try to turn the car’s humble origins into an advantage. So he mocked up the following print advertisement.
This draft was rejected because it didn’t emphasize the car’s superior engineering. The ad that made it through all of the corporate committees is here.
NOTES:
This post is a parody. For further discussion about what is real, go here.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Lincoln Versailles (1978)
This is a perfect parody but the “real world” of it is just how accurate it is at being a lame ass Ford attempt to counter the Cadillac Seville. Although the Cadillac started with a Nova platform it was changed extensively in technical details and got unique sheetmetal and interior.
Ford on the other hand, decided they could gussie up a Monarch/Granada with nose and tail caps and expect the public would not recognize it for what it was.
Had Ford gived more unique sheetmetal to the Versailles like they tried to do with the Fox-body 1982 Continental, if things could have been different?
For a good period of time Ford believed that brand differentiation was fully achieved with just different front and rear caps and body side moldings. They did not do much, if any, actual change in the sheetmetal. Beyond this Versailles, also look at the Grenada and Monarch to see how this was executed. On a few occasions they would do a double strike along with the caps for a different look – see the Fox body Mustang and Capri for this.
This did change later after Iacocca was gone and Bordinat retired.
I saw this exterpt from the August 2002 issue of Collectible Automobile showing clay models of a proposed 1981 Lincoln Versailles.
http://www.lincolnversailles.com/ca2002.htm
If Lincoln had taken that path, the Continental nameplate would probably stayed on the full-size Lincoln for a couple of additional years. Then who knows if a 3rd-gen Versailles would have gone FWD using the Taurus platform?
Those are interesting clay models. Thank you for sharing them.
IIRC from articles at the time that the Versailles was built with higher grade materials and more meticulous construction. It also had the first clear coat paint, about the only special upgrade besides the French whorehouse interior that could be seen. Still, before the later modified roofline, it looked just like the Monarch it shared a showroom with. I also understand that it shared visible interior components with the top of the line Monarch. Also, they used Frank Sinatra heavily in their ads, marking this as an old man’s car. HYou can sell a”young” car to an old person, but not the reverse.
The Lincoln Versailles should have been the 1978 Mercury Monarch, period. I have got to believe that the Versaille was a Lido Iacocca dream car for using what had begun as a Maverick platform. No wonder Iacocca fell out of favor with Hank the Deucehhhh.