Editing Oldsmobile (section)

==Marketing themes==
Early on in its history, Olds enjoyed a healthy public relations boost from the 1905 hit song ''[[In My Merry Oldsmobile]]''. The same theme{{snd}}a fast, powerful Olds car helping the driver romance the opposite sex{{snd}}was updated in the 1950s with the iconic hit ''[[Rocket 88]]''.

The strong public relations efforts by GM in the 1950s was epitomized in the [[General Motors Motorama|Motorama]], a "one company" auto show extravaganza. Millions of Americans attended, in a spirit not unlike a "mini-[[World's Fair]]". Every GM division had a "Dream Car". Oldsmobile's dream/concept car was called "The Golden Rocket".
[[File:1970 Oldsmobile 442 07-27-2019.jpg|thumb|1970 Oldsmobile 442]]
The Dr. Oldsmobile theme was one of Oldsmobile's most successful marketing campaigns in the early '70s, it involved fictional characters created to promote the wildly popular 442 muscle car. 'Dr. Oldsmobile' was a tall lean professor type who wore a white lab coat. His assistants included 'Elephant Engine Ernie' who represented the big block 455 Rocket engine. 'Shifty Sidney' was a character who could be seen swiftly shifting his hand using a Hurst shifter.
'Wind Tunnel Waldo' had slicked back hair that appeared to be constantly wind blown. He represented Oldsmobile's wind tunnel testing, that produced some of the sleekest designs of the day. Another character included 'Hy Spy' who had his ear to the ground as he checked out the competition.

A public relations campaign in the late 1980s proclaimed that this was "not your father's Oldsmobile." The company produced a series of television ads during this time; said ads featured the offspring of various celebrities, and sometimes the celebrity in question. These ads included:
* [[Frankie Avalon]] Jr.
* Cary Bettenhausen, son of race driver [[Gary Bettenhausen]]
* [[Noel Blanc]], son of [[Mel Blanc]]
* Jay Carpenter, son of astronaut [[Scott Carpenter]]
* Amanda Graves, daughter of [[Peter Graves]]
* Richard Hall, son of [[Monty Hall]]
* [[Wynonna Judd]]
* [[Deborah Moore]], daughter of [[Roger Moore]]
* [[Julie Nimoy]], daughter of [[Leonard Nimoy]]
* [[Lisa Marie Presley]], daughter of [[Elvis Presley]]
* Jodi Serling, daughter of [[Rod Serling]]
* [[Melanie Shatner]], daughter of [[William Shatner]] 
* Lee Starr, daughter of [[Ringo Starr]]
* David and [[Gina Belafonte]], son and daughter of [[Harry Belafonte]]

Ironically, many fans of the brand say that the declining sales were in fact caused by "The New Generation of Oldsmobile" campaign, as the largest market for Oldsmobiles was the population whose parents had, in fact, owned Oldsmobiles and that by going away from the traditional vehicles that Oldsmobile's brand was built upon, lost many loyal buyers and put the brand on a collision course with [[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]] and [[Buick]], which led to internal cannibalization and a downfall from which it could never recover. Oldsmobile's final major ad campaign had the slogan "Start Something" in a last-ditch effort to market to younger buyers at the turn of the millennium.<ref>[http://www.kassof.com/insights/ri-wi01.htm In the '90s, General Motors hired marketers from outside the auto industry – gurus of selling soap, toothpaste, disposable diapers and the like. But given the blunders behind Oldsmobile's failure, perhaps GM should have taken its marketing lessons from radio instead!] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628223403/http://www.kassof.com/insights/ri-wi01.htm |date=June 28, 2006 }} Winter, 2001, Research Insights.</ref>