IACOCCA

by David Abodaher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 1982

Flagrant puffery and blatant self-advertising: Chrysler chief Iacocca, the ex-Ford prexy, extolled by a staffer at the Chrysler ad agency, which previously beat the drums for Ford. (Why did Kenyon and Eckhardt switch? An unprecedented five-year contract, an ""unusual"" marketing partnership.) The one thing Abodaher has something to say about, unsurprisingly, is promotion: the ""revolutionary"" 56-for-56 scheme--a '56 Ford for 456 a month--whereby young Lee Iacocca boomed sales in Ford's Philadelphia district and caught the right eyes at Dearborn; the ""startling turnaround"" he engineered in Ford Truck sales; his ""phenomenal success"" in launching the Ford Falcon; and, for several fatuous pages, ""Mustang mania."" The sporty, peppy Mustang, Iacocca's baby, was indeed a '60s masterstroke; and Iacocca himself--the son of a proud Italian achiever who sets his sights, as a teenager, on a Ford vice-presidency by age 35 (and almost made it)--is one of the auto industry's few authentic modern heroes. But Abodaher's blathery effusiveness is both unpersuasive and untrustworthy. For Iacocca's story, along with the Chrysler story, see rather Michael Moritz and Barrett Seaman's Going for Broke (1981).

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION