“In an ordinary car, a green light means 14 operations,” the commercials opens with. Painfully going through each one of the 14 steps. “You depress the clutch,” it continues, and the number one appears on the screen with an audible click. “Shift into low…” [another audible click and the number two appears onscreen] as the driver shifts the column shifter into first gear.

Each step in the shifting operation is painfully depicted in this marketing commercial for Oldsmobile in the late 1940s.

The narrator continues the agonizing explanation while the number three appears: “Release the clutch,” [click] “step on the gas,” [click and the number four appears]. This droning and monotonous explanation continues as the action onscreen shows shifting through the gears through all 14 painful steps.

The video ends with a much happier description of the modern Oldsmobile’s operation. “Just step on the gas and go,” the narrator cheerfully states. 

Funny as it may seem, the marketing department of Oldsmobile went out of their way to make the automatic transmissions seem like a godsend. After viewing this commercial, we were also left thinking, “Thank God for automatic transmissions or everyone would have thighs the size of their waist.”

By the time the narrator reaches the all important 12th step of the operation, the marketing department was all smiles.

When the automatic transmissions were first offered in automobiles, they were not nearly as economical as they are now. A manual transmission was more fuel efficient, capable of quicker acceleration, cost less and are easier to work on. None of these things really mattered to the housewife sitting at home watching this commercial on TV. An automatic transmission seemed simpler to operate and safer than those complicated gearboxes [However do those men actually do that?].

“In the smart new Oldsmobile, you just step on the gas and go,” explains the narrator. How in the world did we ever manage to go anywhere with those old standard transmissions?

While automatic transmissions have improved a lot since this commercial was shown, we still have to wonder what things the marketing departments at the auto manufacturers are trying to persuade us to do now?