The other day I saw this ad on TV, where they showed Frank Lloyd Wright and some of his buildings.  The voice-over says:

He defied conventional architecture by combining form with function to create the extraordinary.

The ad then says:

Defying convention is the Mazda way.

Really?  I don’t know, but from my point of view, Mazda cars have absolutely nothing in common with Frank Lloyd Wright.

Here’s the ad:

Mazda ad

If you look back in history, Frank Lloyd Wright knew a lot about cars, and they weren’t Mazdas!  Here’s a sketch of a car he designed and how he saw it as part of Broadacre:

And Frank Lloyd Wright designed this car showroom on Park Ave. in New York City:

Unfortunately, the building has recently been demolished.  But there are a number of sites about the 1955 Hoffman Auto Showroom, like this on Core.

There are also many photos of Frank Lloyd Wright’s automobiles:

Wright at the wheel of a Packard at an Arizona camp in 1929.

The Cherokee red 1940 Lincoln Continental, left, is one of the cars most associated with Wright.

And then there is this photo, reportedly of Frank Lloyd Wright with two Mercedes cars he received from Max Hoffman as part of his commission for designing the Hoffman showroom, part of a larger write-up of Max Hoffman and the Wright-designed showroom.

So, why Mazda has used Frank Lloyd Wright to help sell their cars today is a mystery to me.