The economic analysts on Wall Street had all but signed Chrysler's death certificate when Lee Iacocca took the reins of a floundering corporate giant in 1979. At this writing (1985) Chrysler's $1.2 billion in government backed loans has been paid back seven years ahead of schedule and the company has reported profits well over $550 million. During Chrysler's recovery, a large public relations and advertising campaign was launched to promote Chrysler's new products and to present consumers with a more positive image of the company. This study was undertaken for two purposes. The first was to examine the changes in the presentation and content of Chrysler's image during the campaign. The second was to undertake a Burkean analysis of the persuasive messages of the campaign in order to assess their motivational structure, ideological perspective and potential effectiveness. How did the image of the Chrysler Corporation change from the time of the federally approved loan in 1979 to its repayment of loans in 1983? To answer the question, this writer employed a method of Burkean analysis to assess the rhetorical values of the Chrysler-paid media campaign. Uncontrolled media coverage was also examined, since it constituted a significant part of the rhetorical situation to which the paid media campaign had to respond. The results were a profile of Chrysler's attempts to gain identification with its constituents. What was the motivational and ideological thrust of the appeals? It was discovered that prior to the federal loan guarantee, Chrysler utilized scenic arguments claiming its own victimage. High energy costs, Japanese imports, runaway inflation, and government regulations were cited as factors contributing to its financial difficulties. After Chrysler successfully repaid its loan, its message was changed to emphasize the Agent: We the New Chrysler Corporation have great leadership and competence and these are the ingredients that led to our success. Chrysler's financial success provided the basis for changing its image from that of a failure to that of a hero.

Businesses, be it large corporations or small, and medium businesses are today hard pressed to find ways to effectively reach out to consumers. The simple reason for this is the advancements in technology. The Internet is forcing marketers to adopt new methods of engagement. Thus, businesses are jumping on the social media bandwagon. However, presence on social media networks does not necessarily equate to interactivity and engagement with consumers. This research examines three automobile companies for interactivity and engagement using thematic analysis and a multi-platform interactivity analysis. The conclusions drawn from this research are: (1) companies are good at interacting or engaging but are seldom good at both, and (2) companies do not necessarily utilize their online resources on multiple platforms efficiently. / Department of Telecommunications

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-168). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

"It is the purpose of this study to determine the type of appeal, the size and cost, the plan of insertions, and the extent superlatives are used in The Dallas Morning News used car advertisements of twenty automobile dealers during the month of April. Fourteen advertising appeals were used by the twenty automobile dealers advertising in The Dallas Morning News in the month of April. The fourteen appeals used were: efficiency, friendliness, style, curiosity, safety, convenience-comfort, economy reliability-reputation, durability-dependability, social distinction, fear-caution, ambition, pleasure, and family affection. The economy was the one most used appeal by the dealer. As shown in Table 12, the number of advertising appeals used corresponds or exceeds very little the total number of advertising insertions. Excepting one case, the dealers place the largest advertisements in the Sunday paper. The general procedure was that of placing large advertisements in the Sunday paper and smaller ones throughout the week. The total cost for the twenty automobile dealers was $6,452.08. The total advertising cost per dealer ranged from $38.20 to $1613.81. Only nine of the twenty dealers used superlatives in advertising during the month of April. The nine dealers used nine different superlatives for a total of 281 times."--leaves 1 and 35.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study explores the intersection of the developments in the growing advertising, railroad, and automotive sectors of the U.S. economy. It examines the latter two sectors’ advertising to the elite by focusing on how industries that targeted the luxury market used fine art to emphasize and underscore the exceptionalism of that high-end market compared with the mass market. It does so by looking at the transition from using art as a decorative component unrelated to the product to using art specifically designed to advertise a product or experience. In the literature, advertising history has been delineated rather narrowly as the history of advertising to the mass consumer or as the history of advertising a specific type of product. This work broadens the focus in advertising history to show that luxury advertisers, as a sub-category of advertisers, developed particular advertising strategies, which recognized and exploited the relationship between their respective service or product, and a consciously selected audience for their respective advertisements. It shows that high art became a differentiating characteristic of advertising strategies aimed at the social elite market. This work also proposes the need for adding a specific timeline for the development of luxury advertising to the broad, more generally known outline of advertising history.