Continuing pointlessly from here, since I seem to be hung up on this subject.

There were some badly chosen endorsers before the era of pure profit. Share Value dominated in the 1920s. Companies attracted stock traders instead of customers, just as they did in the more recent Share Value era.

Unsurprisingly, Studebaker made the same mistake twice. Under Albert Erskine, Studie overpaid shareholders and underpaid workers and factories, which ultimately led to bankruptcy after the boom was over. In the mid-20s, Erskine named an economy car after himself. It failed. In 1930 he named another attempted economy car after football coach Knute Rockne, who was promptly killed in an airplane crash.

Also in 1930, luxury carmaker Marmon tried a model named Roosevelt after Teddy, just in time for the other Roosevelt to make life hard for stock traders.