Go See Cal

I first saw examples of these ads when I lived in the Los

Angeles area. The perpetrator was none other than Cal

Worthington. Or I should say, "Cal Worthington and his dog,

Spot", who was an elephant, a bear, anything but a dog. Cal

was this transplanted Texan who, the ads claimed in a

sing-song jingle would "stand upon my head til my ears were

turning red" to make you a deal. These would run almost

non-stop on the "off channel" networks, during breaks in

bad movies, divorce court TV shows and other visual

detritus.


from http://www.mydogspot.com/scrapbook.htm

They must've been successful, because they ran year after

year, bad afternoon after bad afternoon. And Worthington's

car empire always seemed to be thriving. So, I guess they can't be that bad.

Another example of how mediocre and stupid continues to pervade our culture.

It wasn't until I moved to another city and saw some other

shmo doing the same type of shtick to sell lemons, er, used

cars, that I came to the realization that this was some

sort of national franchise concept. Bottom of the barrel

production values, usually shot on the lot. Ego-driven

owner shown doing stunts or screaming into the camera about

how he can sell YOU a car, no matter what your credit

status, no matter how much down, no matter what. Was the

implied threat, "If you don't, I'll keep running these ads

over and over"?

So now I wonder, who was the original car dealership owner to

stoop to this classic lowbrow approach? What was his

shtick? Did he have a jingle? Stunt animal? Scantily

dressed bimbos? Anybody know?