Americans have always been in love with automobiles. They are a definition of character, and a representation of social status. Drive for the American Dream examines how car commercials sold the American dream...and drove the point home with amazing persuasion. This fascinating documentary also reveals, after thirty years of TV commercials, how the American auto industry appealed to basic instincts for comfort, beauty and sex to sell their product. An amazing story full of nostalgic images and broken promises, this chronicle is a metaphor for business and psychology and a means to understanding the American psyche through something as dear to us as life itself-our cars. Drive for the American Dream would be useful for classes on American History, Cultural History, History of Science and Technology, and Economics. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

• arrogance
• bated
• clamoring
• earnest
• obsolescence
• panache
• stagnation
• staunchly
• tenacious
• unmitigated
• unorthodox
• vicarious

1. Car ads attempt to convey a status or position associated with their product. Do cars say something about their owners? Are they status symbols?

2. America is an automobile culture. What is meant by this term?

3. It is said that Henry Ford created the 20th century. What is meant by this? How has Henry Ford defined the 20th century?

4. What have been the effects of the automobile on American culture?

5. It can be argued that automobiles and television are the two greatest inventions of the 20th century. How did one invention, television, propel the popularity of the other invention, the automobile?

6. In order to create a market for their new cars, car manufacturers had to generate excitement about their new models each year. How did car manufacturers create an exciting atmosphere for their products?

7. Why is style so important to a car?

8. How did Ralph Nadar's book Unsafe At Any Speed, change the way cars were designed and manufactured?

9. Up until the late 1970s, Detroit was the indisputable kingdom of car manufacturing. But by the early 1980s, Japanese imports began to garner a large share of the American car market. How did the Japanese, and other foreign car manufacturers obtain a portion of the American car market?

1. Design a new car and the advertisement or television commercial for your car.

2. Interview your parents about their first car. What is their emotional response? Do the memories of their first car evoke any nostalgia or special feelings?

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