Periodically, American automakers would release short films showing just how their cars and trucks were designed, developed, and assembled. Sometimes they'd show the whole soup-to-nuts process. Sometimes they'd focus on one aspect, like design or engine manufacturing. But these weren't documentary affairs. Names were rarely given, unless they put some executive in front of the camera to give his spiel. They follow pretty much the same format. They don't show anything the carmakers don't want you to see, and pretty much everything you do see is the same stuff you get on the factory tour, just put on film. With all the flash and action and nothing of substance, they really amount to propaganda films, meant to make consumers feel good about the dominant industry or meant to convince the skeptical that the folks in Detroit really were hip to what was going on and had the customer's best interests in mind when building their cars.

These Fisher Body films from 1970 is certainly entertaining, especially to fans of GM products of the time. We see how windshields go in and how vinyl tops get applied. We're told that GM employs computers and robots to take the drudgery out of repetitive tasks and to free up at least their designers to make better use of their talents. At the same time, the videos show that the processes aren't devoid of the human touch. And the narrator hammers home the quality theme throughout the videos.

Were these videos conceived as part of a campaign to counter the tide of imported cars breaching America's shores and eating away at GM's market share? Were they a response to the growing dissatisfaction with GM products' quality? An attempt to get antitrust regulators to look the other way? Or was it pure and simple marketing?

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