U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for July 29: First Car Ad

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST CAR AD

Profile America — Saturday, July 29th. The nation's love affair with automobiles is generations old. Our devotion can be traced down through the decades by looking at advertising, as cars progressed from romantic if noisy new playthings to a near necessity in our vast country. The first known national ad promoting a car appeared in late July 1898 in the Scientific American magazine. It was for the now forgotten Winton Motor Carriage with the headline "dispense with a horse." Americans did just that, and by 1906, 57 car companies spent over a half-million dollars advertising in 12 national magazines. Today, joining auto manufacturers in advertising the latest models are many of the country's more than 21,400 new car dealers. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources:
Winton story and ad/accessed 4/28/2017: www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/07/dayintech_0730/
Auto advertising and early carmakers/accessed 4/28/2017: http://adage.com/article/news/100-years-auto-ads-a-100-year-ride-fulfills-advertising-s-destiny-good-times-bad-product-invented-matches-automobile-perfect-vehicle-show-ad-part-1/80641/
New car dealers/County Business Patterns/NAICS 441110: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2015/00A1//naics~441110

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-census-bureau-daily-feature-for-july-29-first-car-ad-300490831.html

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau