50 years after the Edsel, the vertical grill attempts a comeback

Though he wasn't giving advice to marketers specifically, the writer and philosopher George Santayana famously said that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Well, judging from a sight we've been seeing out on the great American highway lately, one has to wonder if the folks in the auto industry need some Santayana Cliff's Notes. We're talking about the vertical grill. In case you haven't noticed, it's making a quiet comeback. Uh-oh. A history refresher: In 1958, Ford debuted the Edsel, which turned out to be probably the biggest flop in automotive history, if not branding history altogether (OK, we'll set New Coke aside for the moment). While experts still debate which of the car's manifold faults—including its leaking manifold—finally sank it, most agree it was that ineffably moronic vertical grill. A lot of expensive market research had assured the Ford brass that the public would see the front-end intake as dashing and modern. Instead, they likened the grill to a toilet seat (or worse). Time wrote that the Edsel looked like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon. Well, they got the sucking part right: After selling just 2,846 Edsels in 1960, Ford drove the model behind the barn—and automakers have steered clear of the vertical grill ever since. Maybe the designers at Chrysler, BMW and Jeep just haven't noticed how much their grills are losing much of their lateral width and creeping back toward vertical. But the real shocker has to be the 2010 MKT (posted below in the lower right)—a dashing and modern car with a double grill edging toward vertical … made by Ford.

—Posted by Robert Klara