In this section I have compiled links to every known American 1965 Chevelle magazine advertisement. I have also collected a few French Canadian ads for Chevelles and Beaumonts. The ads featured are all from my personal collection of Chevelle information. In each photo I list the general size of the ad and, if I know, which magazine and which edition it was found. If you know magazines or editions for any of these ads, please share the information with me via e-mail. No ads were created for the Z16 (Malibu SS396) option as it was a very limited run of 201 cars used as promotional items to build an image for the SS396 which would be introduced as a separate model in 1966. Funny thing, only one automotive magazine review of the standard '65 Chevelle was published (CARS, April 1965 edition, article on the 350hp Chevelle) but at least four articles were published of the Z16. I guess Chevy's plan to promote it worked!
The vast majority (all but one) of the ads feature the top-of-the-line Malibu SS.
Introductory ad. This ad was placed with a series of similar ads announcing all the Chevrolet models for the 1965 model year. This is probably my least favorite ad since the car featured is more of a drawing than a photograph and it is not truly accurate to a 1965 Chevelle. Take note of the simulated rear brake cooling slots on the rear fenders. Those items were proposed but were never used in production on Chevelles. It is roughly a page and a half in dimension.
L79-specific ads. There were only two ads specifically introducing the 350hp/327ci engine option which was added shortly after the beginning of the model year. Other later ads do mention the 350hp engine but those ads are not specific about promoting the new engine option. The large two-page color ad featuring a blue Malibu SS at speed is my favorite '65 Chevelle ad. The black and white one page ad is nice and does take a shot at the GTO and Fairlane GT/GTA ads. Again, the car is shown at speed which fits with the whole point of offering a bigger, stronger engine option. One interesting thing about the two-page blue car ad: if you look really close (the car is slightly blurred in the photo) you can just make out that the car in the picture has 283 fender emblems! The photo here is too small for you to make that out however, just take my word for it! Beautiful car nonetheless.
White car ads. Chevrolet offered a long series of Chevelle ads featuring the same white car on a riverbank with a pretty girl either driving or looking out the passenger window seductively. Great photography. Most of these ads must have been published prior to the introduction of the L79 option since none except the French ad mention the 350hp engine (though some mention the 300hp engine).
Light blue car ads. Another series of ads were placed featuring a lucky young man spending time with two young ladies by a river bank having gotten there in his new light blue Malibu SS. This ad appeared in numerous magazines but was basically the same ad in each placement.
All-Chevy ads. A series of All-Chevy (excluding the Corvette) were published in numerous magazines. The ads were typically similar though three general formats were used. The two-page ad was published in color and black and white. The text in the one-page ad is similar to the text in the "high performance" two-page ad.
Various other ads. This section contains links to many other various one-time ads placed in various magazines. The blue station wagon ad is the only ad to not use a Malibu SS as the photo subject but it does talk prominently about the 350hp engine option. I wonder if that ad prompted the sale of any L79-powered wagons? The maroon car ad talks about performance. I like this ad because it features a car in Madeira Maroon, the same color as my own car. The red car ad is a rather bland ad. I'm not completely sure but the car featured is either a touched up '64 model or a pre-production mock up of a '65. The grill and front fenders look just a little off. The yellow car ad is the only ad to feature the nice looking convertible, but it too is a Malibu SS of course.
I have only one average reproduction of a newspaper ad used in 1965. I'm sure numerous styles of newspaper ads were published. I've not tried real hard to find these, but if and when I stumble across any I'll add them to my collection.
French language ads. The white car French ad was mentioned above, but it has been joined here with two very small '65 Beaumont ads. The Beaumont was part of a purely Canadian car line (Acadian) that combined mostly Chevrolet components with some Pontiac components. I have not had anyone translate the Beaumont ads yet but they appear to tout the same features as the Chevelle ads and both feature the top-of-the-line Beaumont coupe equivalent to the Malibu SS available in the USA. In the black car ad you can clearly see the Pontiac dashboard of these cars. They featured unique body panels though they are closely related to Chevy body panels, Chevy drive trains and Pontiac interiors. The Beaumont ads are much more visually busy than the American ads for the Chevelle.
Listed below are links to photos of magazines which featured either articles or known advertisements for 1965 Chevelles. If you are searching for in-place ads or articles these photos should help you recognize the correct magazines.
Magazines known to have Chevelle ads. The Life magazine contains the two-page blue car ad introducing the L79 (Grrrrr8) and the Motor Trend magazine contains the black & white L79 introduction ad (Perfect Squelch). The edition information will be found in the photos of the magazine covers.
The only known 350hp Chevelle auto magazine review. The only known auto magazine review of a standard 1965 Chevelle was a review of a 350hp Malibu SS found in the April 1965 issue of CARS magazine. The actual article is featured in large format (large enough to read) elsewhere on my site. You can find the link in the left column. (The reproduced article was copied from an issue of the NCOA magazine The Chevelle Report which republished the article some years ago. This was my only source for the article until I recently found the actual CARS magazine.)
Magazines which featured reviews of the Z16/Malibu SS396. The three magazines shown each feature a drive review article of a 1965 Malibu SS396. The Mechanix Illustrated features a very special Z16 which was a somewhat modified version of the car McCahill drove at the GM proving grounds in Arizona. The car featured very unique seats, open exhaust exiting just in front of the rear wheels and likely ad modified engine. There is one other magazine which featured a review of the Z16 but I do not yet have that magazine.
