Chevy Through The Ages
Published: June 10th, 2010
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So, GM’s ban on use of the term “Chevy” hasn’t quite taken effect yet. Above is an image of the front page at Chevrolet.com, and clearly there are still a number of references to the old abbreviation. And no wonder: the term “Chevy” has been a mainstay of Chevrolet’s advertising from time immemorial… up until very recently, you could even catch Chevy ads that never used the whole word “Chevrolet.” We’ve assembled a few ads featuring the word “Chevy” throughout the years, and we present them now in memoriam of a convenient and iconic nickname.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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whole thing has the sour smell of "Hummer" Docherty attached to it...Oh, she got banished to the Pacific rim area-my bad!
Speaking of the nickname for Chevrolet, I recently noticed something interesting while looking at online scans of Popular Science from the 1950s. As far as I can tell, PopSci spelled it "Chevvy" (that's right, two Vs) until the January 1956 issue, then adopted the spelling we're familiar with today ("Chevy") by the time the November 1956 "New Car Issue" rolled around. I've never seen that unusual spelling in any of Chevrolet's print ads. It also appears that the full, formal name ("Chevrolet") was ALWAYS used by PopSci prior to the February 1950 issue. I'm unwilling to draw a conclusion from one magazine's practices, but I'm sure people used the nickname in conversation long before the term was accepted by the print media. It would be interesting to see when the name was first acknowledged by GM, and if the company's public relations folks had anything to do with how and when the media (and its advertising agency) was first allowed to refer to the make as "Chev(v)y."