There was a period of time when some of the most American of American cars desperately wanted to seem more exotic, more cosmopolitan, more, oh, international. Often this would be expressed by a company blacking out all the chrome on a car to make it more “European,” but sometimes companies just slapped a lot of flags on the car.
That’s what Oldsmobile’s approach was for their “International Series,” a trim level for Cutlass Cieras and Cutlass Calais that emphasized performance, with five-speed manual transmissions and 160 horsepower quad-four engines and, most importantly, badges all over the car with a series of flags on them.
Let’s look at these flags!
Oh yes, this was also the era when Oldsmobile felt it was important to remind you that you weren’t buying your dad’s car. But let’s look closer at the badge:
Okay, so what countries were lucky enough to be included in Oldsmobile’s idea of “international?” There’s 14 countries represented here, vexillologically. They are, going clockwise:
United States of America
United Kingdom
Mexico, I think?
Sweden
Portugal (?)
The Netherlands
Switzerland
Belgium
Denmark
Italy
Spain (Franco era)
France
Germany
and Canada!
So, almost all European countries, save for the US, Canada, and Mexico; zero representation for Asia, and if this was supposed to represent notable car-making countries, Japan’s absence is pretty significant, and you know, Belgium or Denmark is kinda questionable. And there’s no African representation, or Middle Eastern or South Pacific or South American or most parts of the Earth. So, it’s less international and more European/North American, really.
That Portugal flag is maybe the most compromised one, too.
The bar version of the badge had a slightly different order:
This bar version actually has 15 flags, with what looks like another Italy, but I suspect may be Ireland? If the red is sorta more orange?
I guess they tried, at least?
I remember seeing these badges as a kid and wondering why they did that. Had no idea these were all 5 speed cars, though I feel like I saw it on automatic ones that a friends parents had as well.
Now is a good time to point out that Oldsmobile just started putting flags on a lot of their cars, ‘International Series’ trim level or not. Especially Cutlass Cieras, for some reason – they all seem to have the flags, even though extremely few of them were actually ‘International Series’.
I’m guessing the 2nd Italian flag on the bar style is actually a Mexican flag missing its cactus and eagle.
Today I learned that “vexillum” is Latin for Flag.
I think Bishop worked up a Jasonia flag, but how have you not already designed one for Autopia?!
GM: “eh, good enough. Who’s going to notice anyway?”
My sister had a Cutlass Ciera 2-door coupe with these emblems. She thought they were so cool she ordered two extra new ones from the dealership, just to have.
Side note, that car was cool as hell. Leather bucket seats all around with a console shift, and it had the 3.8. Damn thing was a rocket for the time (no pun intended).
I had heard an urban legend that it was supposed to be countries where GM had operations, but that is very clearly not the case, what with Denmark on there and not Australia, Columbia, Venezuela, Argentina, etc. Hell, they had a plant in New Zealand until 1990. I never actually bothered to look closely at the flags, but it is kind of typically GM laziness to us the Spanish flag that had been obsolete for over a decade by then. Its like how you’d maybe buy like a novelty inflatable globe at a party supply store in 1999 that still showed Zaire and the Soviet Union
Yeah, the Franco-era Spanish flag appeared on the bar under the Cutlass Ciera emblem because it had been tooled up a decade earlier for the Cutlass Salon as seen in the topshot, but by the time they designed the roundel it was well into the ’80s.