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Willys-Overland Saturday Evening Post Ads 1948-1949

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

These are all the ads I could find on Saturday Evening Posts published between January 1948 and December 1949. Again, it seems Willys-Overland’s advertising was an exercise in experimentation. Some notes:

  1. City-And-City Campaign: The first obvious item is that Willys-Overland ran its wagon city-and-city campaign in 1948, but did not run all the ads produced in the Saturday Evening Posts (as documented here). Collier’s Magazine also got a few as did Life Magazine.
  2. W-O Graphic: In a November 11, 1946 (see 1946-1947 ads here), ad Willys-Overland used script for Willys Overland Motors. In December 21, 1946, the script was accompanied by the graphical representation of Willys-Overland in the form of an yellow “O”, colored red on the inside, with a yellow “W” atop that design.
    1946-12-21-willys-script-wo-logo
    The scipt disappeared in January on 1947, leaving only the W-O logo. In February and March of 1947 the W-O logo was absent from ads, but then in April of 1947 it made a brief return, before disappearing again.
    1946-10-w-o-badge
    In Febrary of 1948, the W-O logo reappeared, this time with the ‘Jeep’ logo hovering above it. That combo was used through May of 1948.
    1948-02-07-jeep-wo-logo
    In June of 1948, the ‘Jeep’ was dropped in favor of just the W-O logo. By July, the W-O logo disappeared for 1948 and 1949.
  3. CJ-2A Barely Advertised: Trucks and wagons dominate the advertising. There’s only one ad in two years for the CJ-2A and none for the CJ-3A. One reason for this is that Willys-Overland expanded their advertising to other magazines. The Farming magazines (Farm Journal, Country Gentleman, and others) were more CJ-ad oriented.
  4. ‘Jeep’ Product Badge: Through 1948 and most of 1949 Willys-Overland was advertising ‘Jeep’ Trucks and ‘Jeep’ Station Wagons. However, in late 1949 the company began a switch to WILLYS ‘Jeep’ Station Wagons (see October 15, 1949 ad), then the ‘Jeep’ name was relegated in December 1949 to a small (new) badge, while WILLYS became the more prominent branding once again. Here’s how the badge looked.
    1950-jan-07-jeep-product-badge
    In January of 1950, the company shortened WILLYS ‘Jeep’ Station Wagons to Willys Station Wagons, dropping the ‘Jeep’ entirely.

    1950-01-07-sat-evening-post-station-wagon-pg86-650px

    January 07, 1950 Willys -Overland ad in the Sat Evening Post, page 86. Note the use of the ‘Jeep’ badge and the return of WILLYS as the primary brand.

  5. From ‘Jeep’ to WILLYS: After February 1950, Willys-Overland dropped the ‘Jeep’ badge and the ‘Jeep’ branding of the wagon as a ‘Jeep’. Instead, the company went full WILLYS branding, as seen in the September ad below. This seems incredibly strange, given the company had finally won the Trademark for JEEP that year  (June 13, 1950 Awarded JEEP registered trademark).
    1950-09-23-sat-evening-post-willys-makes-sense-pg57-650px

    September 23, 1950, Willys-Overland ad in the Sat evening Post, page 57. Note that ‘Jeep’ has disappeared completely from the advertising.

    Why did Willys-Overland drop ‘Jeep’? I have no idea. But, it’s no wonder the average person is/was confused about whether a wagon is a ‘Jeep’ wagon or a Willys wagon!

  6. In October of 1946, Willys-Overland introduced the phrase, “Makers of America’s Most Useful Vehicles” within its ads. That phrase would accompany ads into the 1950s. However, in December of 1949, Willys-Overland introduced a new phrase, “World’s Largest Maker of 4-Wheel-Drive Vehicles”. This phrase was only used once in 1949, but a variation of that phrase would eventually grace Willys-Overland ads (or Willys Motors) in the form of  “World’s largest manufacturer of 4-Wheel-Drive Vehicles”. I don’t have dates for when the former was dropped and the latter adopted … yet.

Below are the 1948-1949 ads from the Saturday Evening Journal:
1948-1949-sat-evening-post-images-flat-650px

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1943 Bantam BRC-40 Postcard on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Bantam-FordGP-WillysMA-EarlyJPs, Features, Postcards This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Another of these postcards is now on eBay.

View all the information on eBay

“U. S. Army Signal Corps. Jeep Soldiers Out For Refreshments.”

1943-bantam-brc-40-refreshments-postcard1 1943-bantam-brc-40-refreshments-postcard2

Original Post February 20, 2014:

“You are bidding on a vintage 1943 photo postcard of a Jeep, soldiers and a lady. The card reads, Photo by U S Army Signal Corps. The card is postmarked Camp Pickett, VA 1943. The card is in very good condition.”

1943-bantam-postcard1

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Break-in Instructions for a 1961 Wagon

• CATEGORIES: Documents, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Frank shared this pic of instructions that accompanied his 1961 wagon.

He wrote, “Thought you might find this interesting. It is the sleeve that came on the visor of my 61 Wagon. When I bought it it had 32,000 miles and now 42,000. The jack was wrapped in a newspaper dated 1961.”

Willys-Wagon-break-in-procedures-frank

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1944 Photo of Eisenhower in France **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay.

This photo appears to have been published as part of Eisenhower’s 1948 book “Crusade in Europe”.

“Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in a jeep at front line positions in France in September, 1944 . . . Get. Eisenhower’s own book of the war, “Crusade in Europe,” to be published Nov. 22, will be a treat to military men in studying the strategy of the war and its campaigns, but perhaps the most interesting part of it to the layman is his inside estimate of the war leaders. . .”

1944-09-france-eisenhower1 1944-09-france-eisenhower2

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Willys Special Service Tools Brochure

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This Essential Special Service Tools brochure by the Miller Manufacturing Company appears to have been first published in late 1945 or early 1946 (I’m assuming this based on the Willys-Cars-Trucks-J sign on the cover). It was then updated with this second edition in December of 1948.

These aren’t best scans, so I’ve had to do repairs in Photoshop. I’ve actually had this digital brochure scan for several years, but finally had a chance to assembled the scans yesterday, after Maury noted that this has the Willys sign, which would make it the latest document we’ve found with the Willys-Cars-Trucks-J sign on it. There’s a companion brochure for Trucks in the post below.

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Willys Truck Special Service Tools Brochure

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This Essential Special Service Tools for Trucks brochure by the Miller Manufacturing Company appears to have been first published in January of 1948. It was then updated with this second edition in December of 1948.

These aren’t best scans. so I’ve had to do repairs in Photoshop. I’ve actually had this digital brochure scan for several years, but finally had a chance to assembled the scans yesterday, after Maury noted that this has the Willys sign, which would make it the latest document we’ve found with the Willys-Cars-Trucks-J sign on it. There’s a companion brochure for CJ-2As in the post above.
willys-trucks-miller-tools-hires-front-lores

willys-trucks-miller-tools-hires-back-lores

willys-trucks-miller-tools-hires-full-lores

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1946 Powered By Willys Engine Badge

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Maury pointed out that a porcelain sign of this badge sold in 2017 (see bottom).

In the April of 1946 issue of the Saturday Evening Post (same month in Colliers, too), Willys-Overland introduced a new advertising badge for the Willys engine.

1946-powered-by-the-world-famous-willys-jeep-engine-badge

As you can see in the introduction ad (A New Chapter), it was matched with the announcement of the Willys-Overland Jeep Station Wagon, though the ad hides the wagon in anticipation of its summer of 1946 launch.

1946-04-13-sat-evening-post-soon-we-will-write-a-great-new-chapter-pg61-lores

The badge made a second appearance within the release-announcement of the station wagon in the August 18, 1946, issue of the Saturday Evening Post.

1946-08-17-sat-evening-post-new-station-wagon-ad-pgs-67-66

The next month, in September of 1946, the badge appears for a third time, again associated with the wagon.

1946-09-21-sat-evening-post-new-station-wagon-49

As quickly as the badge appeared, it disappeared with the same speed. For the October 1946 ad, which included a wagon in it, the Saturday Evening Post seemingly replaced the engine badge with a smaller badge, one with a “W” over the “O”. It’s the earliest jeep ad I can find with that badge (if anyone knows of another, earlier ad, please let me know).

1946-10-w-o-badge 1946-10-19-sat-evening-post-jeep-station-wagon-pg48

At some point, there was a porcelain version of the sign. One sold on eBay in 2017:

jeep-engine-sign

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