Saturday 15th February 1902

US car manufacturer, Oldsmobile ran its first national automobile advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post. Ransom Olds was a legendary innovator in publicity and marketing. He had sent one of his assistants, Roy Chapin, on a voyage from Detroit to New York in a 1901 Olds Runabout. In spite of the absence of proper roads, petrol stations, or repair garages, nine days and 800 miles later, Chapin arrived in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel unscathed. Newspaper accounts of the journey boosted publicity for the Runabout. Yearly sales of Runabouts increased from 425 to 2,500 and with the help of newspaper advertisements increased to 5,000 cars by 1904.