The "Mini-Brute": some really silly nonsense
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:58 pm
Back when I was young, in the 60s, General Motors attempted to get into the USA small car market dominated by Volkswagen by importing Opels from the GM German subsidiary. These cars were marketed through Buick dealerships.
There was a huge advertising campaign to get these cars in front of the American public. The little Opels were called the "Mini-Brute" and always featured an Opel auto with an elephant. In the first ones, and elephant was harnessed to the back bumper of an Opel and there was a tug of war -- predictably, the elephant was always able to drag the Opel away and the announcer would say, "The Mini-Brute loses again." I also seem to recall when they had the elephant and the Mini Brute at the drag strip and they raced, and of course, this time the Mini-Brute won.
I have tried to find a picture of the tug of war, but to no avail. For some reason, in my old age, I still find these commercials quite amusing. Perhaps because there was some truth in advertising? Anyway, here are three ads I could find. I'm sorry for cluttering this board with such nonsense, but perhaps someone will get a chuckle out of it:
http://www.legendarygmmagazine.com/free ... k_opel.pdf
There was a huge advertising campaign to get these cars in front of the American public. The little Opels were called the "Mini-Brute" and always featured an Opel auto with an elephant. In the first ones, and elephant was harnessed to the back bumper of an Opel and there was a tug of war -- predictably, the elephant was always able to drag the Opel away and the announcer would say, "The Mini-Brute loses again." I also seem to recall when they had the elephant and the Mini Brute at the drag strip and they raced, and of course, this time the Mini-Brute won.
I have tried to find a picture of the tug of war, but to no avail. For some reason, in my old age, I still find these commercials quite amusing. Perhaps because there was some truth in advertising? Anyway, here are three ads I could find. I'm sorry for cluttering this board with such nonsense, but perhaps someone will get a chuckle out of it:
http://www.legendarygmmagazine.com/free ... k_opel.pdf