The « Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile » campaign isolated older buyers while failing to attract younger ones. It ultimately led to the brand’s demise.
The period immediately following the 1970s oil crises wasn’t nicknamed the « Malaise Era » for no reason. Many American car brands were forced to undergo radical changes in their manufacturing processes. This led to various experiments to try and keep companies afloat, with this era giving rise to some bizarre creative decisions from American automakers. For instance, Oldsmobile tried to repurpose a diesel engine in its Cutlass model, which ultimately flopped. Then there’s the infamous Chevette, which was essentially created when GM was in full-blown panic mode and needed something that could sell like hotcakes.
By the 1980s, Oldsmobile was sharing GM’s lackluster image and had garnered a reputation for being — bluntly — cars for the elderly. They weren’t particularly bad cars, per se, but they were viewed as cookie-cutter, badge-engineered, and boring. The brand was on the verge of losing its audience because its main demographic was aging, and its appeal to younger buyers was nonexistent.
In a desperate effort to curb plummeting sales, GM launched the « Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile » campaign in 1988.
