Born for WAR…. Ready for PEACE

The civilian Willys Jeep is here

Born for War…Ready for Peace… To millions of people all over the world “Jeep” means WILLYS

This was a marketing slogan used by Willys in conjunction with a full color ad in Post magazine of 1944. The end of the war was near and Willys-Overland was positioning itself for the upcoming civilian era of the Jeep. While advertising extensively throughout the war years, they carefully aligned the name”Jeep” with their company. In fact, it took a lawsuit by the US Government (Willys won) which was not settled until the late 1940′s, to officially give them the rights to the name. They had been embedding the words “Jeep” and “Willys” on engine castings and body parts on early models of the MB until the military made them halt the practice.
With this particular ad, they kicked off the campaign to the general public. Phrases like” Famous for its outstanding performance in war, the “Jeep” has been fitted for peace, to work and serve on farms and in industry,around the world. Talk about the big picture! The marketing people saw no limits; no boundary’s to their opportunities. The world had seen the mighty vehicle in action and developed quite an attachment to it. Willys was all set to capitalize.
The initial push was to the farmers. Knowing that it would be sometime before the re-conversion of manufacturing facilities for tractors could be accomplished, they jumped in feet first and staunchly proclaimed it to be a vehicle of multiple use.
The ad proclaimed ” It pulls, pushes or drags every type of farm implement . Doubles as a highway car for a speedy trip to town and then rounds out a full day as a mobile power plant. (Rural electrification was not completely reliable in 1945)
Any use they could dream up was apparently within the “Jeeps” realm. Some were quite far fetched and the “hundreds of uses” that they proclaimed required a good imagination. Despite the optimism, the heyday soon passed.