While General Motors was introducing its downsized full-size sedans for 1977, Ford continued to sing the praises of its roomy land yachts, including the LTD.

For the 1977 model year, and to tremendous fanfare, General Motors rolled out its freshly downsized B-body and C-body cars, the product of a giant zillion-dollar program to update and repackage its bread-and-butter family sedans. The slimmer, trimmer, and more fuel-efficient new models were a sensation, from Chevrolet to Cadillac, and the Chevrolet Caprice version was named the Motor Trend Car of the Year. Meanwhile, across town at the Ford Motor Company, the Dearborn product people wouldn’t have their downsized full-size cars ready until MY 1979—two whole more years. What to do?

In a corollary to the make-lemonade principle, Ford shrewdly targeted its full-sized LTD at the traditional full-size car buyers who hadn’t yet signed on to the downsizing trend—the customers who continued to purchase their cars by the pound and by the inch. In the original 1977 spot below, longtime Ford spokesman Hugh Downs emphasizes the impressive length and girth of the LTD: bigger by far than the latest Chevrolet, and a fair match for the Cadillac Sedan DeVille (in size, anyway). Actual changes were minimal in the LTD for ’77. Mainly, the mid-range Brougham trim level was was dropped, leaving the LTD and the LTD Landau. Ford was targeted by the United Auto Workers with a 28-day strike early in the model year, but it didn’t hurt the annual production totals much. Video follows.