Advertising transformed in the '60s. The hard-sell approach was old-fashioned; increasingly, image trumped words. Ads needed to shape opinion as much as build an image. They needed to be memorable—to resonate with America at large.

The "Fitz and Van" series of ad illustrations done for Pontiac throughout the 1960s (and into the early 1970s) helped the GM Division accomplish this. The late Art Fitzpatrick (who died in 2015) and the late Van Kaufman (who died in 1995) executed possibly the best-known and widest-reaching car print ads of the decade. Fitz and Van had absolute creative control in how the cars were portrayed; Pontiac HQ would only assign a model, trim level, and body style, and let the masters work.