The Ford Edsel is often viewed as the biggest automotive marketing failure in history. Confidently forecasting trade figures of over 200,000 sales per year, everything then went horribly, horribly wrong. It didn’t really help that the grille appeared to resemble something out of gynaecologist monthly.
What do you think the Ford Edsel Grille looks like?
Making a glamorous debut in 1957 after one of the most elaborate pre-release publicity campaigns America had ever seen, only two years later the Edsel was canned with a loss of at least $250 million for the Ford Corporation- nearly $2 billion by today’s inflation. While nearly sixty years have passed since the infamous Edsel first appeared on highways throughout the land of the free, its lingering smell still haunts the Ford Motor Company to this day.
Much to the embarrassment of a company credited with crafting the modern automobile, the Edsel turned Ford into a worldwide laughing stock. One of the most cutting jokes from that time went: ‘What does the ultimate loser look like? Answer: Richard Nixon driving an Edsel’. The resurgence of Ford’s talent with the likes of the Mustang, GT40 and the Bronco didn’t seem to make any difference; the Edsel remains an enduring icon of failure Ford can’t shake off.
While some cars can fall foul of simple factors, the Edsel is something of a rarity; as it suffered from a perfect storm of disastrous attributes. It’s looks were heavily criticised, that now notorious grille compared to a toilet seat or, more famously, a woman’s Lady Garden. Some journalists remarked that the Ford Edsel resembled an Oldsmobile ‘sucking on a lemon’. Yet, in the eyes of the contemporary motorist, the aesthetics don’t emerge overly gruesome.
Although the majority didn’t delve any deeper than the controversial looks, those who did found themselves disappointed further. It was the bog standard Ford/Mercury in a party frock - offering no improvement on acceleration, speed or handling. While this is common practice today, with such an aggressive advertising stance expectations were understandably high. This was the Quantum of Solace moment no car manufacturer wants. Not that it was completely Ford’s self-flagellation on the power front, as the Edsels’ arrival coincided with the Automobile Manufacturers Association’s horsepower ban.
Just to further confusion, potential customers were confused by the Ford hierarchy and where the Edsel sat within. Then, almost like the final nail in the coffin, due to an early launch date in an attempt to dominate the interest of new car buyers, the Ford Edsel was pushed into showrooms carrying 1958 model-year prices. These prices were noticeably higher than end of ’57 price tags; stunting sales to dramatic effect. Then, adding insult to injury, America was slipping into recession with compact cars being the order of the day. The likes of Packard, Desoto, Hudson and Nash all fell by the wayside as the recession ravaged old-school car manufactures who struggled to move with the times.
However, the final blow was the name. Within the Ford Motor Company Edsel Ford (Henry Ford’s only recognised son) remained a beloved figure despite being largely overshadowed by his father. He sadly died in 1943 due to stomach cancer, but surely naming a much-trumpeted design after a corporate legend couldn’t hurt? All the big names - Dodge, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet - had previously taken the same route. This felt out of date in an era of forward-looking, space-age enthusiasm - but it was the Ford family themselves that poured hatred over the name. Edsel Ford’s son, Henry Ford II, declared that the thought of his father’s name spinning on thousands of hubcaps greatly upset him - while ‘Edsel’ sounded almost alien and snobbish.
Urban legend states that other names considered included ‘The Mongoose Civique’, ‘Pluma Piluma’ and ‘Pastelogram’. When writing to poet Marianna Moore, who was unofficially enlisted to help with brand name development (although her suggestion of the ‘Utopian Turtletop’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue), a Ford spokesman scripted ‘Our name, dear Miss Moore, is - Edsel. I know you will share your sympathies with us.
Sadly, these aspects mask the Edsel’s merits. Often referred to as the automotive Titanic, Ford would rather you forgot about the Edsel. However, for history’s sake, we reckon it should be preserved as a warning to modern manufacturers about the dangers of flaunting a vehicle promising the public what can’t be delivered. Someone should really have told Enron.