Avanti advertising question

[JBOYLE]

Studebakers are a frequent topic of entries over at the Car Lust Blog.
There is a new thread about cars in comic books. Of course, the (in)famous Avanti in Archie is mentioned and shown.
The author thinks it was a product placement deal and I'm sure it was to some extent.
Does anyone have details on it?
He can't believe that Studebaker would pay good money to be in a comic book and to be driven by the "bad" guy (actually, more of a weasel).

So, anyone out there have details or opinions as to how it came to be?

[JBOYLE]

Bump...

Anyone...Anyone?

[Hawklover]

My cousin used to work for DC comics back in the day of the late 50's and 60's as an artist..........man I should have saved all the Superman art boards:-(........anyway he had many friends in the business...........including the folks at Archie comics...........his next door neighbor who worked for TWA had a new Avanti...........anyway he told me that the guys at Archie were closet gear heads..........and as such it was an original idea to include the Avanti into a story..............no input from Studebaker was involved.

[kmac530]

I doubt product placement was that big in the 50s and 60s. Big deal now...but not until the 80s was it the norm.
I read somewhere that the first BIG deal {maybe not THE first} was the movie E.T. where he was going to eat M&Ms but Reeses paid big money to use Reeses Pieces instead and a market was born. Now they wont even show a logo on a shirt or hat without taping over it or blurring it out if they are not getting paid by that company on reality TV shows. Pretty ridiculous.