Most of what we semiconsciously assume about the past is wrong. We assume that electric power must have come before telegraphs and telephones and radio, because all of those systems need electricity. In reality the grid started long after telegraphs and slightly after telephones, and wasn’t really complete until the 1950s.
We also assume that Volkswagen was relatively unknown here until the company started seriously exporting and advertising around 1955. In reality, at least among car-minded people, VW was already viewed as an icon for Hitler and Germany. The importers had to break through this familiar image with cutesy advertising, excellent customer service, and clever use of influencers. The car itself was nothing special, to put it mildly. Even after it was modernized in the early ’60s, the Beetle was inferior to Renault. (I owned both and speak from experience.)
This 1948 Chevy advertising film is pleading with customers to be more patient as GM and the supply chain get fully underway again after four years of interruption.
= = = = = START QUOTE:
In 1941 our cars were as much a part of our daily lives as they are now. But we didn’t realize how vital a part until: [dramatic pause, sounds of guns] … a certain make of car called a Volkswagen came out. So we stopped making cars. Never mind the cars, it was tanks and guns and whatever the army needed to win the war.
= = = = = END QUOTE.
So VW was familiar in ’48, and may have been familiar in ’41 as well.
Polistra's Mill 