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clip 1Clip description
This clip shows the whole advertisement minus the opening and closing titles. A curtain parts to reveal the new model Holden FE on display on a turntable in a car showroom. As the car spins around, a male voice-over lists the model’s many new features. A couple inspect the car. The woman sits behind the wheel as the man closes the door. The narration concludes by saying that Holden is 'Australia’s own car, Australia’s finest value’.
Curator’s notes
The FE Holden was released only three months before the introduction of television in Australia. The coming of television had a huge impact on the way companies promoted their products and prompted the shorter and sleeker advertising we are used to today. As a cinema advertisement released on the cusp of television, it is an important example of the way in which Holden’s own advertising methods developed in subsequent years. As the commentary at the beginning of this ad states, the new Holden FE has a 'fashion-setting beauty to thrill the eye’ – a beauty which is displayed here in a straightforward, but effective, way. Cinema advertising at this time had the luxury of a captive audience which allowed advertisers to convey their message in a less hurried way than their television counterparts (although the first couple of years of television advertising commonly retained the longer format).
This advertisement consists of a series of static framed shots, most of which show the car either rotating on its showroom turntable or its interior features. Audience attention is held mostly through the voice-over listing the car’s new features. There was no need to extend beyond this approach at the time because Holden was already popular (the Holden slogan 'Australia’s Own Car’ had passed into the public consciousness) and its market share was growing. Up until the 1960s, it was common for Holden cinema and television advertisements to hinge on each model’s itinerary of new features and the technological developments that General Motors Holden employed in creating a new model. The glamorous 'new look’ of the FE as described by the narrator is reinforced by the presence of a stylish couple who inspect the car in the showroom. The closing credits tells us the actress’s frock was supplied by Georges, a fashionable department store then located in Collins Street, Melbourne. The car is marketed to both men and women as well as to the growing family market. The interior styling and the re-circulating ball steering (which allowed for easy parking on the Saturday shopping run) would have appealed to women drivers; while the larger wheel base and increased boot room catered for the family market.
Cinema at this time also had the advantage of screening in colour – something that didn’t come to television in Australia until the mid-1970s. The two-toned paintwork and vibrant interiors of the FE in this ad (now a little less vibrant due to colour dye fade of the film print) were transposed into monotone when shown on television (see the black and white television advertisement General Motors Holden – FE Holden: 'The Average Man’, made in the same year). For cinema audiences watching this ad in the 1950s, the car’s 'fashion-setting beauty to thrill the eye’ would have been seen in sparkling Eastman colour (a then newly developed colour single strip multilayer film developed by Kodak).
The discolouration of the image in this advertisement is an example of heavy colour dye degradation, caused by changes in chemical composition as the film stock ages. The cyan and yellow image dyes have faded, leaving only traces of magenta, which is responsible for the purplish cast. This clip’s colour is already very washed-out; once the dyes have completely broken down, this advertisement will look virtually monochromatic. It also exhibits signs of moderate vinegar syndrome which can result in the shrinking and buckling of a film print. Advanced vinegar syndrome causes the film to give off a pungent vinegar smell. Film preservation techniques (including correct storage conditions) can slow down the decomposition process but not reverse it.
