“Bring Them Back Alive!”: Fear and the Macabre in US Automobile Tire Advertising

Abstract

Abstract: Tire companies consistently distinguished themselves by preying upon fears of catastrophe. Ads regularly referred to flat tires and blowouts, and even more surprisingly, alluded to people being maimed and killed. No other companies so directly linked their products to the dangers inherent in traveling by car. The target for these ads was generally men, even when they appeared in women’s magazines, with the industry expectation that men were the principal decision makers and purchasers of this type of car component.