Historiography: How The 2004 Chicago Auto Show Shaped My Work In The Automotive Media
“We are a people driven by fantasy. Think about that night at Touche where you saw this perfect muscle bear hanging out by the bar. He's approachable, but once you made that move, he heads for the door. As you follow him, you notice that as soon as he crossed Clark Street, he jumps into a new Mazda3. For once you would have thought he would jump into a Nissan Titan or a Jeep Wrangler.
“Sadly, your fantasy has collided with a dose of reality.”
Let me stop here before I go any further. This was my original starting paragraph for a story that I published in Midwest Ursine. That was the online publication I was the Managing Editor of. It was my first job in the media business.
Keep in mind, that was 21 years ago. Things were different then. I was so engrossed in trying to make it in the LGBTQ+ press to the point that I thought it was going to be my future. Little did I know, that it would be almost true.
In February of 2004, I worked my first media days at the Chicago Auto Show. I arrived at McCormick Place as a fresh face in the online media world. A proto pioneer, you might say. A pioneer of what? New media was in its infancy at that time. And, Midwest Ursine was well into its foray into the world of news websites and the continuous navigation of LGBTQ+ subcultures.
The word “ursine” is a term used for “bear,” or, in other words, a subculture within queer male society. That is where I was residing 21 years ago. Someone in the throes of a subculture that was simply a culture of desire.
What does this have to do with the 2004 Chicago Auto Show? One of the points that I made in the original article was to point out our economic power at the time. Not just the LGBTQ+ community, but of all the subcultures within it. As we we're diving deeper into the new century, we were slowly gaining momentum on various fronts. There were a few setbacks a few years earlier, however we started emerging from that period of time as a stronger community both socially and economically.
With that, I started exploring what it would be like to be one of the automotive media corps. Not necessarily a preview of years to come, but a dipping of the toes into the murky waters that I will find myself in years later.
You might have called me a “babe in the woods.” Not knowing the rules of engagement, as I do now.
In recalling this story, I was looking back at what I originally wrote in Midwest Ursine. I can tell you that I was cringing as I was going through everything. As a service to view, the readers of Victory & Reseda, I will do my best to recall what I wrote. Bear with me as I reinterpret the original story…pun intended.
One of the points that I made was about the backlash against the growth of the SUV and truck markets. Consider the context of the time. While I acknowledged the “fantasy” part of pickup truck and SUV ownership in in terms of the subcultural audience I was writing for, the light truck market was truly growing in 2004.
The automotive industry received the message regarding this backlash against the light truck market. It was before the Chicago Auto Show that the executives at the Ford Motor Company declared 2004 as the “year of the car.”
That proclamation began at the North American international auto show the month prior with the introduction of the 2005 Ford Five Hundred sedan and Freestyle crossover. These two vehicles were the beginning of a program called the “Way Forward.” The significant piece of the introduction of those two forward models was their production at Chicago's Torrence Avenue Assembly facility on the on the city’s southeast side.
At the 2004 Chicago Auto Show, Ford followed up with the unveiling of a third vehicle built on the same platform – one that was shared with its distant corporate partner, Volvo. The 2005 Mercury Montego made a splash by bringing Ford's chairman Bill Ford along with key executives from Dearborn. This would be one of a few main headlines that would come out of McCormick Place that year.
Along with the unveiling of the 2005 Montego, Ford also announced an additional 400 to 600 jobs at both the Torrence Avenue assembly plant and the nearby Chicago Heights stamping facility.
Along the same theme of the “year of the car,” General Motors unveiled the 2005 Buick LaCrosse. In effect, this was to replace the aging Century and Regal models. It was also the first time I saw Bob Lutz in action. At that time, he was a GM executive who was making waves within the company after stints with Ford, BMW, and Chrysler.
The third major headline at the 2004 Chicago Auto Show was the North American introduction of the 2005 Subaru Outback. This would be the most iconic generation of this groundbreaking crossover/wagon. In this third generation Outback, it would offer a six-cylinder BOXER engine on top of the standard four-cylinder motor. Keep in mind, this was before they were turbocharging them.
The introduction of the 2005 Outback gave me an angle to my coverage of the auto show. One of the themes I was exploring was the way the automotive industry was marketing to LGBTQ+ consumers. At that time, Subaru was leading the way in engaging our customers. They were joined by Saturn, Jaguar, and Volkswagen. This, in itself, was revolutionary. Not exactly the dawn of multicultural automotive marketing, but we were seen as an untapped segment towards a transactional relationship.
In 2004, Subaru cosponsored the Rainbow Card. This affinity credit card was also revolutionary, as it was positioned for the LGBTQ+ consumer. Their advertising also included tennis great Martina Navratilova, as another way to attract the demographic.
Also seen on the floor of McCormick Place was Scion, Toyota’s “youth-oriented” brand. This would be one of the first stops before their June on-sale date in the Midwest. It was the only time I met Jim Farley, then the vice president of the brand – years before he joined Ford. At the time, Farley and I had a conversation regarding how Scion would market to diverse consumers. He felt that his products would truly appeal to “progressive” consumers of all kinds.
I look back at my interaction with Farley back then, and I found it ironic today.
Further in my exploration at McCormick Place, I was pondering what the demographic of the readership at Midwest Ursine was truly buying. Rather, how many brands in 2004 did not realize that LGBTQ+ consumers were actually buying their vehicles. For example, Cadillac.
Stereotypically, there was a huge following or GM's luxury brand by mainly LGBTQ+ males. During a brief conversation with a spokesperson at Cadillac, the message I got was that they would welcome us to purchase and own their vehicles. Remember, this was back in 2004.
While I was looking at how the manufacturers see LGBTQ+ consumers, I had to remind myself that every transaction starts at the dealership. Again, I was unaware of which dealerships actually market it to our demographic. Where I lived in Madison, Wisconsin in 2004, I cannot recall any local dealerships targeting the LGBTQ+ consumer base. I did find out that a Chicago area Subaru dealer actually did. In fact, they were doing a lot of marketing efforts to the local LGBTQ+ community and were heavily involved in local events.
As I was reading the original text of this story, I am reminded by the time capsule this opened up. It was an indicator of how far we have advanced. Yet, I am reminded about some of the changes that has transpired in the automotive industry since towards the end of last year with the pulling back of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, along with the absence of marketing to the LGBTQ+ demographic. This was definitely absent throughout this month with all of the automotive entities not changing their social media icons, let alone creating posts that engages the LGBTQ+ community.
Certainly, a lot has changed over these past 21 years.
Perhaps this second-to-last paragraph from the original article can give us some sort of glimpse as to how far we have come in 2004…
“The ultimate driver in today's marketplace is our final consumer choice. For us, we spend our dollars as much as we are courted for them. It is a dance contest for which everyone who participated wins. The bottom line in the automotive industry comes down to an individual choice of a product and a service to fulfill our love of the freedom of mobility provided by a one-to-two-ton piece of machinery, technology, and comfort.”
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: A huge “thank you” goes to Tom Wray of the Illinois Eagle for giving me this start in our business. Some original quotes have been edited for better clarity.
All photos by Randy Stern