Wide angle views of futuristic locations. Most of these images are part of worldwide print campaigns for IBM and Microsoft. Agencies: Ogilvy & Mather,New-York , McCann,San-Francisco.
—Christian Stoll
I saw these on Gizmodo while checking out the crazy redesign.
An early experiment in direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately, I can’t find a higher-res version of this magazine ad.
In 1980, enthiasm for the benzos was still high. “The Ativan Experience,” promised a 1978 ad. It did not say what the experience was going to be…Ativan, at first, was pure bliss. “The Angel Ativan,” as poet Lynn Strongin calls it. — Insomniac by Gayle Greene (No, not Gael Greene.)
Untitled, by Strongin.
1974 poster for Levi’s by Charles E. White III. Grab a signed version here, or donate one to Modcult Central.
Please tell me this somehow came out of the research for replying to your dad’s levi’s email
Another Science Fiction is the title of Megan Prelinger’s upcoming book featuring advertisements from the era of the great Space Race. If her name sounds familiar, it might be through her work on the Prelinger Library.
In a NY Times feature on the book, Prelinger states:
These images suggest that the furthest reach of what humankind hoped to find in space was in fact the very essence of infinity.
The above illustration is by Willi K. Baum. For more science and tech ads of the 50’s and 60’s, peruse this huge flickr set.
Another Science Fiction is currently available for preorder at Amazon.
The Internet is allowing marketers to focus on increasingly narrow demographic targets.
Back in the old days, when Burroughs-Wellcome was in the cocaine game, their branding people had a little joke. “This stuff sells itself!” they’d laugh, “You could call this stuff POISON TABLETS and it would fly off the shelves!” Rounds of oneupsmanship followed. Finally, they launched a tablet containing a mix of cocaine and kola nut extracts. Why old timey pharma people thought ‘Coca’ and ‘Cola’ belonged together like peanut butter and jelly remains a mystery, but they called the product ‘Forced March’. It was eventually discontinued around 1920, due to “excessive demand”. Also, “Snow Hill Buildings”? A bit rich, Burroughs.
Another ARP ad for your collection. This time we have Pete Townsend using his 2600-P as a pillow.
It looks like you can snag one of the free ARP demo flexidiscs mentioned in the ad on eBay.
Weird, I was just thinking about them yesterday when I saw some helvetica sign where the letters all overlapped and wondering if they were still around.
Mr. LaFontaine wrote most of his voice-overs and, sometimes with collaborators, came up with familiar phrases like “a one-man army,” “one man, one destiny,” “from the bedroom to the boardroom,” and “nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no way out.”
Well, who can say honestly he doesn’t harbor a curiosity about the ethos and dynamics of the hippie? Ps– is that fleet foxes record good?
Carrie Brownstein sez (courtesy of NPR):
If “Baroque Shins” isn’t conjuring anything for you, how about: Fleet Foxes are estrogen-powered Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Itchy-Beard Left Banke, or Subaru-Outback-hand-me-down-from-Mom-and-Dad Bert Jansch. (Hmmm, maybe these brief descriptions would be more useful if I weren’t so fond of Fleet Foxes.)
Buy a Love Battery or Cat Butt record from Sub Pop instead.
Interesting non-site for advertising agency Modernista that overlays minimal navigation on top of other web content and services. Do not be alarmed.
Often sponsored by publishing houses or simply used as a clever advertising medium, the dust covers are the most ingenious and useful marketing method we’ve seen in a while.
This was a new one for me. It was taking awhile to pick up a wireless networks at MM’s apartment and then when I checked the available networks I was amazed and frustrated to find that spammers and plundered a new domain– wifi hotspots.
/me cries
in a similar vein, I received my first my first text message spam the other day from 0000000000:
This is the one you want to C, Symbol : F D K E, Fred Entertinment This is an easy tripler ujpkgupontuor
