[noelwelsh]

I believe it's a style that David Ogilvy popularised. Take a look here, particularly the Rolls Royce ad: http://www.ogilvy.com/our-history/

[hetspookjee]

I find it quite delightful to look at these advertisements having binged Mad Men for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Cool to see that car news advertisements haven't changed their format in over 60 years. One can almost literally place the ad on a website such as top gear and it'd blend in just fine.

[edkennedy]

Long form copy I believe it was called