What were the odds? If you didn’t know the location or sponsor in advance, how likely would you have been to pick the following: Woman from New Zealand wins a Chrysler in St. Louis? But it happened just like that, and this Chrysler print ad is a testament to that fact. Favorite Car Ads.
1983 Chrysler Fifth Avenue
Beauty Queen
We’re talking, or course, about the 1983 edition of the Miss Universe Pageant, won by none other than Lorraine Downes, author of Life, Loss, Love. Born in Aukland, New Zealand in 1964, no one could have guessed that Lorraine would one day be handed the keys to a brand-new 1983 Chrysler LeBaron Convertible equipped with the extra-cost Mark Cross leather interior.
Miss Universe, 1983
For the record, per Wikipedia, “She wore a midnight blue gown and long gloves during the competition. Downes’ win was New Zealand’s first in the pageant’s history, although Diana Delyse Nottle had placed second runner-up to Shawn Weatherly in 1980 and Donella Thomsen was a semi-finalist in 1981. No other delegate from New Zealand made the cut until 1992.” Now you know.
LeBaron Convertible
This ad, however, does not actually mention Lorraine, but instead focuses on the Fifth Avenue luxury sedan, and the LeBaron compact convertible. Apparently the 1983 Miss Universe event, which took place at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, did not merit the attention of Chrysler’s national marketing team, as this modest promotional effort was produced by the brand’s regional marketing group. And it shows.
St. Louis
We appreciate especially the clip-art “models” and hand-drawn arch—did you catch the arch?—framing the ad. If I were a St. Louis-area Chrysler-Plymouth dealer at the time, I might have been disappointed by this apparently last-minute effort.
Shipping to New Zealand
We have one question, which we would need to call Miss Downes to answer, and we’re not that industrious. Did Lorraine have to pay the shipping fee to move that spiffy new convertible from St. Louis to New Zealand? Kind of also wonder if she had a chance to visit Imo’s. What were the odds that Lorraine would have been the first Auklander to try St. Louis-style pizza?
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1983 Chrysler Fifth Avenue Pictures
Click below for enlarged images
