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The Cadillac Escalade debuted 20 years ago with all the subtlety of Shaq O\u2019Neal jumping out of a birthday cake.<\/p>\n
Introduced at the prim-and-proper Pebble Beach Concours d\u2019 Elegance in California, the pickup-based, three-row land yacht shocked polite society as the most outrageous SUV the world had ever seen. It was a throwback to the tail-finned behemoths of Cadillac\u2019s 1950s glory days, yet became an icon for a new, 21st-century generation of wealthy rappers, actors, and athletes \u2014\u00a0including Shaq himself.<\/p>\n
Cadillac is celebrating the Escalade\u2019s 20th birthday this summer with a series of prints and a video commemorating four generations of Escalade.<\/p>\n
Bigger than a New York apartment and bejeweled with enough chrome to be seen from outer space, the Escalade has been a segment champion for a brand that has struggled to establish itself as an athletic maker of smaller sedans and crossovers like\u00a0Mercedes, BMW, and Audi.<\/p>\n
The best-seller in its segment for 15 of its 20 years, the bling-tastic Escalade delivers\u00a0about\u00a0$3 billion a year to Caddy’s bottom line. Sales have topped more than three-quarters of a million in the United States\u00a0and over 800,000 world-wide.\u00a0Since 1999,\u00a0its\u00a0customers have been the Cadillac’s richest and\u00a0youngest (average age 52)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0bringing new generations to an 116-year-old brand.<\/p>\n
The Caddy that put the OMG into SUV debuted in 1998\u00a0as little more than a GMC Yukon in a tuxedo. Based on a pickup truck chassis, it was rushed to market to counter the similarly super-sized Lincoln Navigator.<\/p>\n
The Caddy’s stature\u00a0and palatial interior room wowed a world warming to SUVs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat combination immediately struck a chord,\u201d says Cadillac president Steve Carlisle. \u201cIt introduced Cadillac to an entirely new generation of luxury customers via popular culture and changed perceptions of what the brand could offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 2003 musicians from Kanye West to Ludacris to Jennifer Lopez were writing about the Escalade. Sang Lopez in her\u00a0hit\u00a0“Love Don’t Cost a Thing”:<\/p>\n
“When you rolled up in the Escalade
\nSaw that truck you gave to the valet
\nKnew that it was game when you looked at me”<\/p>\n
Escalade became synonymous with Hollywood celebrity, helping to grow sales\u00a0by 90 percent with\u00a0the second-generation model in 2003.\u00a0By its fifth birthday Escalade sales had ballooned\u00a0230 percent. Though it pioneered the mega-ute, Lincoln’s Navigator couldn’t match the Caddy’s celebrity status.<\/p>\n
Blinged-out Escalades from urban-ride trend-setter DUB magazine\u00a0became a staple at auto shows. The ute starred in\u00a0The Sopranos<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Entourage<\/em>\u00a0TV shows. Even Tiger Woods was attacked by his golf club-wielding wife in an Escalade.<\/p>\n Not everyone wanted the big Caddy.<\/p>\n It was scorned by media who labeled\u00a0Escalade\u00a0a threat to safety and the planet.\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reporter Keith Bradsher skewered the beast in his 2002 book “High and Mighty SUVs: The World’s\u00a0Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way,” writing that “it looked like a very large shark traveling down the road with its jaws gaping.”<\/p>\n As Escalade sales approached 40,000 a year in North America, not every model was a success as attempts to expand the badge with pickup and hybrid versions were met with yawns.<\/p>\n