In this 1969 American Motors campaign the message was, “Some like the Javein for what it is. Some like it for what it can be.”
In the late 1960s, American Motors was struggling to maintain a foothold in the U.S. car industry, but the little automaker still managed to present some of the most memorable TV commercials in the biz. Each one was a little pop culture masterpiece, and the credit for that belongs to Mary Wells Lawrence and her firm, Wells Rich Greene, AMC’s ad agency of record. Her blue-chip clients included Alka-Seltzer (“Pop pop fizz fizz”) and at one point, she was said to the the highest-paid executive in the advertising industry.
In this famous spot called “Supercharger,” a father and son face off regarding the son’s modifications to his new ’69 Javelin—including a race-gutted interior and a GMC 6-71 supercharger with a Hilborn bug catcher poking through the hood. When the father calls the car butchered, the son replies, “Butchered? It’s a great car. I only made it better,” which then became a catchphrase in the hot rod world. In the print portion of the campaign, the top line was “Some like the Javelin for what it is. Some like it for what it can be.” Enjoy the video.
