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Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Advertising Art (1915–1916)
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (1915): Announcing The Baker R & L Company's Latest Models
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (November, 1915) - Personal Pride
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (December, 1915) - Fashions Car
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (January, 1916) - Confidence
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (February, 1916) - Arriving in Style
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (March, 1916) - Comfort
Baker/Rauch & Lang Electrics Ad (April, 1916) - Utility/Pleasure
Images: Alden Jewell Collection; chuckstoyland.com
The 1915 Rauch & Langs were advertised as "Strikingly Beautiful — Mechanically Perfect". Still, nationwide sales of electrics were down. So, setting aside bad feelings surrounding the earlier patent suit, Rauch & Lang merged with Baker Electric in the summer of 1915. The new company was the Baker R. & L. Company, capitalized at $2.5 million. Charles C. F. Wieber served as president with F. R. White (Baker's vice president) serving as first vice-president and Charles E. J. Lang as second vice-president. That year a roadster listed at $2600, while a limousine went for $4000. Distance driving was becoming possible, as well, with cars going from 50-100 miles per charge at a steady speed of 20 mph.
1916 advertisements have featured both Baker and Rauch & Lang logos along with one-word attributes to appeal to undecided buyers, attributes like comfort and confidence — comfort in body and mind and confidence in the car's mechanics and safety attributes. In one such ad, a four-color, head-on snowy scene depicted a woman driving in a short fur cape and feathered hat with her two children in winter coats and hats sitting beside her. It read, "The mother finds comfort in knowing that the safety and pleasure of her little ones are enhanced because of this driving simplicity - this independence from mechanical obsession and confusion." Other ads of the time also hit upon the car's discrete virtues. One depicted "pleasure" in a summer scene with a mother in a full, white, frilly dress gathering flowers in a meadow as one of her children played with a doll and a second bent over to smell the flowers. The ad text ran, "Your Rauch & Lang or Baker Electric is a car of Pleasure. You find pleasure in the utility by which you so easily reach the out-o'-way places or make a social call."
Source: www.secondchancegarage.com
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