Everyone likes to win free stuff, right? Well, it turns out that when the Camaro was first introduced for the 1967 model year, hundreds of people won brand new 1967 Camaros via many different forms of contests, sweepstakes, games and raffles. Not only were they given away free to keep but sometimes the prize was the ability of the winner to drive a brand new 1967 Camaro for a pre-determined amount of time. That amount of time could have been anywhere between a couple of days all the way up to an entire year.
Multiple different kinds of entities were giving away brand new 1967 Camaros during the Fall of 1966 on through the Winter, Spring and Summer of 1967. A small sampling includes large national supermarket chains, oil companies and Chevrolet itself. Smaller businesses and organizations like local Chevrolet dealers, radio stations and fund raising interests also got in on the act. In addition to all of the print, radio, television and outdoor advertising done by Chevrolet itself, these exciting promotional tie-ins helped to keep the public interested in the newly introduced Camaro.
This thread will document these giveaway model year 1967 Camaros through newspaper articles, advertisements, photos and memorabilia associated with each particular contest. Through my research I have not only been able to find a copious amount of information about these sweepstakes, contests, games and raffles but in several cases I have been able to put a name and sometimes a face to those who actually won them so many decades ago.
Perhaps you may remember a family member, friend, co-worker, neighbor or even yourself participating in or even winning one of these contests. If so, please share your recollections.
Separate threads will also be created for 1968 and 1969 model year Camaro contests. Stay tuned.
A lot of what I will post was located at newspapers.com but I will identify the other digital newspaper repositories and other web sites where applicable. To identify the particular newspaper, date they were published and where they were each located simply consult the file name under the image.
Enjoy!
