THE TRUCK ROOM

Ford's full-size pickup trucks have been the best selling pickup in the USA for over 45 years and the best selling vehicle--car or truck--in the USA for over 35 years. Ford has a powerful interest in maintaining this popularity. As a consequence, it created the "Truck Room" for its marketing and promotion staff.

The Truck Room is a secret hideaway in Detroit where these individuals can sit down and bond in the midst of manly artifacts sacred to truckers such as lariats, cowboy boots and hats, a duck decoy, Rapala fishing lures, a fish landing net, a T-shirt imprinted with "Big Big Daddy," dirty work gloves, a canoe paddle, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. There are strict rules of decorum, and anyone wearing a pink shirt or carrying any foo-foo elitist beverage which Frasier Crane would be comfortable drinking is barred from entry. Any individual who speaks with obtuse polysyllabic phraseology (such as by uttering "obtuse polysyllabic phraseology") while within the room is immediately fined a dollar.

The purpose of the room is to make the staff feel like they are in a place like Texas so that they will come up with effective "experimental marketing" ideas promoting Ford trucks. One example of such an idea was the reality show Dirty Jobs, which shows hard-working folks using Ford trucks to accomplish necessary but noisome tasks, such as hauling hog manure, sheep carcasses, or other offal stuff.

The story of the Truck Room is one of many revealing insights into the history of the automobile industry in general, as well as of specific groundbreaking vehicles, which can be found in Paul Ingrassia's excellent book Engines of Change. You might call it the ultimate auto-biography.