Maury suggested we organize and go through the various Willys-Overland and Willys Motors logos, badges and slogans seen in brochures and ads during the years between 1941-1963. I thought that a good idea as well, so here’s what we found for the pre-Kaiser period between 1941-1953.

Before we begin, when is a slogan ‘a slogan’ and when not? It is totally arbitrary on our part, but we think we’ve covered quite a few (and welcome other suggestions). Much of Part I is a synopsis of advertising-related posts published over the last year. We hope to publish part II in the next few days.

1941-1945: (A deeper dive into the ads of this time period can be found here).

As a 1951 advertising review noted, the challenge facing Willys-Overland, once winning the jeep contract, was to convince consumers that the jeep was a Willys product (even though, as Ford argued, it was a joint project). To this end. Willys-Overland’s very first ad in December of 1941 emphasized WILLYS.

See the full ad here: http://www.ewillys.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/1941-12-13-sat-evening-post-jeep-in-civvies-650px-pg117.jpg

Willys-Overland continued this theme with their famous war-time color ads, a list of which you can view here (1942-1946). In the Hell Bent ad, the first of the war-time ads, Willys-Overland continued to emphasize WILLYS. The company also added “JEEPS” as a third category of vehicles for the first time.

From the June 27, 1942, ad in the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1943, while emphasizing WILLYS, the company introduced a new badge, “The Sun Never Sets on the Fighting Jeep”

This ad, AVENGING JEEPS BLAST JAPS FROM CHINESE VILLAGE, was published in the February 06, 1943, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, page 85.

The “Fighting Jeep” phrase lasted through May of 1943. Then, was left off of a few ads, before returning on July of 1943 with the replacement of Fighting with Mighty: THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE MIGHTY JEEP.

This ad, HEROIC OFFICERS DARE DEATH FOR MEN, was published in the July 17, 1943, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, page 97.

Willys-Overland continued to emphasize WILLYS until February of 1944, when the company abruptly switched the emphasis to JEEPS.

From the February 05, 1944, ad in the Saturday Evening Post

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This Carter Products Ad appeared in the January 19, 1952, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It’s an interesting throwback ad to the WWII concept of the jeep (arguably, it’s a Ford GPish illustration).

Maury spotted this Jeep Radio Ad record on Worthpoint. It turns out that the CJ-3B page has published some of the recordings from the record. So, on this Christmas morning, you can test out the sound of your new computer/tablet/phone/Internet-of-thing.

https://cj3b.info/Radio.html

1. This 1963 magazine ad for the new ‘Jeep’ Wagoneer prominently claimed the wagon had “DRIVEPOWER”, a slogan for the Wagoneer’s new and improved and exclusive 4-Wheel Drive system. I looked to see if Kaiser Jeep attempted to trademark the term, but there’s no evidence of that at the US Patent and Trademark site. So, the use of the drivepower concept seems to have been brief.

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2. This other 1963 Ad also uses the term “DRIVEPOWER”, but in a smaller font.

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3. This early 1964 Wagoneer Ad defines “DRIVEPOWER” as “Wagoneer station wagon’s new, improved and exclusive 4-wheel drive system” (also published in Popular Science).

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4. This 1963 or early 1964 ad promoted a variety of ideas, include “DRIVEPOWER”. The ad also promoted ABC’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”, which was sponsored, at least in part, by Kaiser Jeep (see Jeep rare brochure promoting that show here).