Video Flashback: Four Great Muscle Car Commercials From 1969

We all love nostalgia, and thanks to YouTube, almost any TV advertisement that has ever graced the airwaves can be found, with enough digging. Luckily, we found this clip with advertisements for some of 1969s coolest vehicles: the Pontiac GTO Judge, Ford Mach 1 Mustang, Mercury Cougar, and Plymouth Roadrunner.

The first commercial is for the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge and starts off in mock court with a judge wearing a powdered wig. An oddly-upbeat jingle, describes the Hurst Speed Shifter and available three- or four-speed transmission, with 366 horsepower. The colonial soldier singing then croons about the “mag-type wheels” and a “60-inch spoiler airfoil” to end the slightly-confusing song about one of the most awesome muscle cars of all time.

The commercial for the 1969 Mach 1 Mustang is less campy and gets to the point much quicker with a Mach 1 hauling tail down a long stretch of pavement. A strong voice with relatively few words leaves the images of the car to do most of the talking, although we did like the line “Mach 1: something to keep Mustang the original and the front-runner.”

The first apparent throwback in the 1969 Mercury Cougar commercial is the “Lincoln-Mercury” naming convention, and is the only one of the four commercials to feature a live predatory cat. Aimed at the pony car market of the time, the Cougar was placed in between the Mustang and the Thunderbird in the FoMoCo lineup, and the 1969 model-year came with extensive styling upgrades and the 351 Windsor engine, as standard, with a slew of now-iconic upgraded powerplants available.

Rounding out the quartet of vintage television commercials is one for the 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner. The commercial for the Roadrunner is probably our favorite – largely because it features one of our favorite cartoons from childhood. While featuring a cartoon clip from Looney Tunes’ Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner seems like an odd way to sell such an iconic automobile these days, we suppose back then, the ad campaign wrote itself.

Whether these commercials are a walk down memory lane, or a glimpse back at a world before your time, we’re glad that they have been preserved for all eternity and can still be shared.

About the author

Greg Acosta

Greg has spent nineteen years and counting in automotive publishing, with most of his work having a very technical focus. Always interested in how things work, he enjoys sharing his passion for automotive technology with the reader.
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