Nash relied on the tried and true in automotive marketing as it launched its 1956 product line.   

Modern-day viewers may find it strange, but this original Nash commercial for 1956 doesn’t include a single appearance of the product. Instead, four guys stand in front of a car under a tarpaulin and sing a catchy jingle telling us how truly wonderful the new Nash will be—once we actually get to see it, that is.

There you have it, the classic tease that carries us back to the day when the annual new model introductions were pop culture events, and the car dealers covered their showroom windows with butcher paper to heighten the anticipation. It may seem corny now, but back in the days of annual model changes, planned obsolescence, and all that, the annual new car introductions were a big deal indeed.

In this case, the commercial informs us, the big date for Nash is November 17, 1955. So in case you couldn’t be there, the Nash story for 1956 included three product lines: the senior Statesman/Ambassador, the compact Rambler, and the sub-compact Metropolitan. Actually, the Nash brand was a bit of a jumble that year as American Motors was in the midst of a rebranding campaign under CEO George Romney. The Nash and Hudson names were being phased out as the automaker concentrated on a single label, Rambler, and in the following year, the big, full-size Nashes would be discontinued altogether. But on the bright side, American Motors rolled out its own V8 engine at mid-year, replacing the soon-to-be-defunct Packard V8. Video below.