Vince and Larry, famed crash-test dummies, join Smithsonian collection of American memorabilia

America has learned a lot from two famous dummies.

Vince and Larry, two automotive crash-test dummies, in 1985 began starring in an ad campaign promoting seat belt use in the U.S. Created by NHTSA and the Ad Council, which developed other public service pitchmen such as Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog, the spots made a simple promise: "You could learn a lot from a dummy."

It turned out to be true, with seat belt use rates skyrocketing over the decades from about 14 percent in the early 1980s to 91.6 percent in 2022. In recognition of Vince and Larry's legacy as popularized auto safety ambassadors — today's influencers — the dummies officially became part of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's permanent collection on July 14, 2010.

The museum is home to a trove of American innovation and cultural touchstones, including some of the first automobiles, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, Dorothy's ruby slippers featured in The Wizard of Oz, and Fonzie's leather jacket used in the 1970s sitcom "Happy Days."

They joined the museum's collections alongside other key automotive safety objects, including an energy-absorbing steering column from a 1967 Chevrolet and a three-point safety belt from a 1961 Volvo. The latter was only invented in 1959 and represented a vast improvement upon the two-point belts, which only secured a passenger's lap.

Vince and Larry helped transformed how Americans think about automotive safety.

Low seat belt use rates were a pressing safety issue for government regulators in the 1980s, resulting in thousands of deaths every year in the U.S. Vince and Larry entered the conversation as a part of a television, print and radio public safety campaign that used humor to combat the lack of seat belt use, NHTSA and museum officials said at the time they went on display.

Jim Ferguson and Joel Machak, working for the Chicago office of the Leo Burnett ad agency at the time, were the visionaries behind the campaign. Vince and Larry were an immediate hit nationwide, and the creators received numerous awards, including the advertising industry's prestigious Addy award, a Cannes Film Festival Bronze Lion and two Clio awards in 1986 and 1987. The dummies went on to become cultural icons, starring in numerous ads across the U.S. from 1985 to 1998. In 1992, a New Jersey toy manufacturer introduced action figures in the image of Vince and Larry.

Beyond their pop-culture stardom, the dummies are also credited with saving numerous lives over the years, a legacy that continues to be felt. In 2017 alone, seat belts saved about 15,000 lives, NHTSA estimates.

"For years I've been eating steering wheels, and for what?" Vince asked in one of the campaign's television commercials. And Larry's simple, yet heartfelt reply captured the mission the two dummies spent years dedicated to: "To prove how safety belts save lives."