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General Motors Holden – Make it Yours (1968)

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'Make it yours' education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

This advertisement for the 1968 Holden HK Premier, narrated in voice-over by John Laws, features young people and city life over the course of a day and evening. Beginning with shots of city buildings and streets, it concludes with scenes of glamorous nightlife. Over the final shot of the Holden Premier parked outside a restaurant, the voice-over urges 'the new generation Holden – make it yours’.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

This evocative ad harnesses the seductive and sophisticated mood of urban living, placing the HK Holden Premier at the centre of 1960s city life. The opening montage shows the Holden in a metropolis of spiralling concrete buildings, interwoven roadways and abstract shapes. The deep, smooth voice of John Laws washes over the soundtrack and seduces the viewer into desiring to be part of the world in front of them. As the scenes in the ad shift from day to night, the Premier easily adjusts to each changing context, going from exciting, youthful and swinging to 'switched on’, stylish and 'smooth as silk’.

The narration, atmospheric music and iconic images of Sydney build an underlying tone of refinement and class, emphasised by the stylish couple arriving at a night-time event at the end. Aligning Holden with a certain lifestyle began in 1960s advertisements. Other ads from this time similarly position their products as items of desire (see the Cadbury Roses ad 'For All the Different Women You Are’, c1970, also narrated by John Laws).

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows a black-and-white television advertisement for the ‘new-generation’ 1968 Holden HK Premier sedan. The advertisement features young people driving the Premier sedan along city roads during the day and in the evening. There are interior and exterior shots of the car, close-ups of glamorous people and shots of the car on Sydney streets. The advertisement is narrated by broadcaster and radio personality John Laws and features a seductive soundtrack of a woman singing about youth, beauty and feeling good.

Educational value points

  • The imagery and the ‘look beautiful’ refrain are designed to appeal to a young sophisticated mobile 1960s audience. The Holden HK Premier was marketed as a ‘new-generation’ luxury car that was suited to glamorous independent urbanites who had fast-paced lives. The voice-over and lyrics link glamour, desirability, youth and beauty with the car by including phrases such as ‘exciting youthful Holdens’, ‘the good life’ and ‘think young’.
  • This advertisement indicates a shift in General Motors-Holden’s target audience from its loyal customer base of 1950s families to the generation born after the Second World War, who were coming of age in the more affluent 1960s. The inner-city locations in the advertisement also reflect an increasingly urban market – by the end of the 1960s, 85 per cent of Australians lived in urban areas.
  • By the late 1960s Holden was facing increased competition from Ford and the Japanese car industry, both of which were challenging Holden’s position as Australia’s best-selling car. To meet the challenge Holden released the HK series, which included more models, engines and other options to choose from than had been available for previous series. The HK series included the Belmont, the Kingswood and the upmarket model in this clip, the Premier.
  • Rather than using a ‘hard sell’ approach, this advertisement creates desire for a way of life. The Premier is promoted as the embodiment of glamour and urban chic, rather than for its engineering features. This kind of concept-based advertising appeals to emotion and the consumer’s desire for social status, happiness and self-esteem. In this way the product is promoted for its symbolic relationship to these human needs more than for its actual material qualities.
  • The soundtrack, cinematography and editing are designed to associate the Premier with the sophistication and excitement of city life, as depicted in the clip. The commanding and suave tone of the narration by ‘Golden Tonsils’, well-known and often controversial radio presenter John Laws, the atmospheric music and the cuts between glamorous faces, sleek city streets and buildings convey a sense of refinement and class as the car glides in and out of the footage.