This ad appeared in the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Missouri), Sunday, Oct. 7, 1945. It immediately caught our attention, and we have written about the ad and the contest. But while the ad, especially the color version, is all about post-war fun, the country was just beginning to recover.
On October 1, 1945, the war was over, but America was hardly back to normal. Japan had formally surrendered less than a month earlier, and millions of Americans were still in uniform. On September 30, the Army alone had 7.56 million men and women in service, including 4.16 million overseas or en route. Demobilization had begun, but the great movement home was only starting. Families were still waiting, occupation forces were moving into Germany and Japan, and the country was only beginning the difficult shift from wartime production to a peacetime economy.
The automobile industry was making the same transition. Civilian production had barely restarted; only 580 passenger cars were built in September, and government controls on production were not lifted until September 24. Willys-Overland was in an unusual position. Its wartime Jeep contracts were ending, but it had already introduced the civilian CJ-2A in July. The Jeep was one of the war’s most recognizable machines. Willys no longer had to convince Americans that it was tough or useful. Its challenge was to convince them that the wartime jeep could become their Jeep. Against that background, Pepsodent’s October 1945 offer to let Americans “Win a Jeep!” takes on much greater importance.
While the “Win A Jeep!” research is not finished, we wanted to launch it this month, the 81st anniversary of the contest.
FJ