Other cars may sell more units, but in terms of sheer mythic status, absolutely no automobile quite matches the enduring fame of the Ford Mustang, the quintessential American muscle car. To this day, the car’s popularity as an American icon means that Mustang body kits and other aftermarket items are going to remain reliable sellers for as far in the future as anyone in the auto business can imagine. The most intriguing aspect of that reality is that the great myth of the Mustang has as much to do with marketing and pop culture as it does with the car’s styling and performance.

The Mustang was launched in 1964 with a blaze of publicity; a then astonishing 2,600 news outlets covered the vehicle’s initial reveal after auto industry legend Lee Iaccoca sponsored an internal design contest within the Ford Motor Company. Then, before the car was even widely available, it was featured in the third entry in a series of films that were starting to generate some attention. “Dr. No,” and “From Russia With Love” had been very successful spy films, but by the time James Bond’s gadget laden Aston Martin had an exciting encounter with the Mustang driven by a revenge seeking beauty in “Goldfinger,” the film was on its way to being the first modern-style franchise creating mega-blockbuster, launching a world wide spy craze so over-the-top, it very nearly eclipsed Beatlemania in terms of pop culture intensity.

It’s worth noting that, unlike the Aston Martin, the Mustang was provided entirely free of charge to the “Goldfinger” team, a move which no doubt facilitated the car’s inclusion by notoriously budget conscious producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. Not too long after, a Mustang was driven by none other than master of cool Steve McQueen as a relentless cop in “Bulitt,” the movie thriller which essentially created what most of us think of today as the classic film car chase.

Since then, Mustangs have figured prominently in over 500 notable movies, by some counts. Add in to that innumerable television shows, thousands of commercials, a number of pop songs, and the fact that the Mustang was promoted as a vehicle in auto races and you can see how that myth-making translates to more than a few purchases of Mustang body kits and countless other aftermarket items.