Corinthian leather

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Corinthian leather was a phrase invented for marketing use to describe the leather used in certain Chrysler luxury cars in the 1970s. The first use of this term was to describe the leather in the 1974 Chrysler Imperial, but the best known use of this term is from the advertising campaign for the 1976 Chrysler Cordoba, featuring celebrity spokesperson Ricardo Montalbán.[1]

According to one source, the term was created by employees of the Young & Rubicam advertising agency [2].

Corinthian Leather is a marketing term that does not actually indicate any particular type of leather. In fact, according to one reference, Chrysler's "Corinthian" leather was mass produced in a plant in Newark, New Jersey (not Corinth).

The television series Ed seemed to satirise this branding in an episode where a character attempted to sell ordinary frozen turkeys as "fine Corinthian turkeys" in a Thanksgiving moneymaking scheme [3].

The Online show Strong Bad Emails references this is the e-mail "chair". When looking at new chairs, Strong Bad sees an appealing model and asks if the leather is Corinthian.