In the 1950s, Ford wanted to increase its market share. Ford already had the Mercury and Lincoln sub-brands and wanted to introduce a new sub-brand: Edsel. It was named after Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford. Edsel Ford ran Ford from 1919 to 1943 and successfully founded Mercury. He died of stomach cancer at the age of 49.

Ford first did extensive market research on whether the public was waiting for the new brand. When this seemed to be the case, a big launch was prepared with a TV show for which big celebrities were hired. The public had great expectations of the new brand. Seven models were released. Things that stood out included the vertical grille and the lack of cruise control.

The brand did not become a success despite the great campaign. The public did not like the upright grille and did not understand what exactly Edsel was supposed to add. What Edsel also lacked compared to competitors was customer loyalty. There was also no need from customers for an additional mid-range brand and, on the contrary, a need for fuel-efficient cars, which Edsel did not make. Finally, the quality control was not done well, so cars with all kinds of defects were produced. In order to make Ford Edsel a success, some adjustments were made and instead of 7 models only 3 models were sold. This attempt was in vain and at the end of 1959 Edsel came to an end. An expensive failure, because Ford made 350 million dollars loss on it, which would have been about 2.4 billion dollars now.