Marketing on the eve of revolution.
For a long time the 1993 Ford Mustang has been largely ignored. That’s understandable, considering the SN95 launched in 1994 and revolutionized the pony car in so many ways. That’s what makes watching this ’94 Mustang commercial so interesting.
The 1993 model year was one which originally was not supposed to be. Ford had been working with Mazda to create a revolutionary new Mustang which would use a front-wheel drive platform and drop the V8 from the lineup. You probably know what happened next, with Mustang fans flooding Ford with angry responses.
Ford had to scramble to create the SN95, which would preserve those vital elements of the Mustang. In the meantime, the Fox-body models had to soldier on. This commercial gives us a peek at how dealers marketed an aging platform which had been around for a whopping 15 years.
Essentially, they slapped a new coat of paint on the Mustang’s marketing. You get music relevant for the time, the latest fashions, and some high-tech effects for the ad. The dealer also promotes features which don’t have anything to do with performance, like the “premium sound system” and cruise control. It’s a far cry from how the Mustang was marketed back in the day and even from how it was marketed a year later, celebrating freedom, tradition, and performance.
Another prominent feature of this commercial is the promise that guys who drive a Ford Mustang are more attractive to women. Ford, Chevy, and Mopar fans will argue this one all year and more, but the dealer obviously was leveraging the old strategy of using sex appeal to sell products.
Interest in Fox-body Mustangs has been on the increase in recent years. People are feeling nostalgic for what the American muscle car was in the 1980s, and that of course leads them to the Ford Mustang of the time.
