So, What's the Big Idea?
Advertising in the Sixties, by Steven Heller. Excerpt from the book 'All-American Ads of the 60s, edited by Jim Heimann
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Similarly, despite the idiotic simplicity of an early Sixties ad for the soft drink, Dr Pepper, which sought to siphon market share away from Coke (R) and Pepsi (R), and shows a thirsty lass dreaming of another Pepper, was a costly exercise for the advertising agency. Just getting the model's mouth, eyes, and hair perfect enough to seduce someone into drinking a beverage with Pepper (not to mention Doctor) in the name took considerable hubris. Yet an ad for 7 UP (R), which had as much to gain from tried-and-true advertisements as Dr Pepper, used a much more unconventional expressive approach: Rather than a photograph or realistic painting, the bold step of using a conceptual illustration of a man watching a football game (seen in the lens of his binoculars), with barely a hint of the bottle (it was convention in all such ads to show the product), gave the viewer an added message to ponder. Now that was gutsy. Slowly mass market advertisements were injected with more original attributes.
However, Sixties advertising inherited Fifties hold-overs that worked so well during the Age of Eisenhower there was no need to change in the Age of Camelot. Budweiser's (R) "Where There's Life There's Bud" campaign continued for almost a generation with little modification. The picture-perfect paintings of sultry dames or smooth playboys with tall glasses of foamy brew poured before their eyes was so ingrained in the vernacular that MAD magazine, infamous for its parody advertisements, did a send-up featuring a woeful drunk under the title "Not Happier But Wiser". Despite this critical implication, having a slogan, jingle, or logo so indelibly a part of American language was free advertising.
The Sixties gave birth to its own classics rooted in crafty headlines and taglines designed to wheedle into the mass subconscious. Many were innocuous, others insipid. Of the latter, cigarettes slogans were often the most memorable, including one for Lucky Strike Filters that went "Show Me A Filter Cigarette That Really Delivers and I'll Eat My Hat!" While the verbiage may seem unwieldy, it was unforgettable when wed to a photograph of an attractive model whose hat has a large bite chomped out it. One ad in this lengthy campaign apparently shows a Vietnamese woman sheepishly smiling under her traditional straw headgear in perhaps one of the few tips of the hat, so to speak, to America's geo-political involvement in Southeast Asia (as a dumping ground for cigarettes, among other things). Another monumental ad of the day and thematic constant in American vernacular was the "Be Sociable, Have a Pepsi" campaign. Most of the ads included photo-realistic paintings of young middle class "Sociables" who "prefer Pepsi" cavorting at the ski lounge and penthouses of America. The ad not only encouraged its target audience to live life with gusto, the slogan was a mantra for a generation.
Page 1 2 3 4
Page 1 2 3 4
Similarly, despite the idiotic simplicity of an early Sixties ad for the soft drink, Dr Pepper, which sought to siphon market share away from Coke (R) and Pepsi (R), and shows a thirsty lass dreaming of another Pepper, was a costly exercise for the advertising agency. Just getting the model's mouth, eyes, and hair perfect enough to seduce someone into drinking a beverage with Pepper (not to mention Doctor) in the name took considerable hubris. Yet an ad for 7 UP (R), which had as much to gain from tried-and-true advertisements as Dr Pepper, used a much more unconventional expressive approach: Rather than a photograph or realistic painting, the bold step of using a conceptual illustration of a man watching a football game (seen in the lens of his binoculars), with barely a hint of the bottle (it was convention in all such ads to show the product), gave the viewer an added message to ponder. Now that was gutsy. Slowly mass market advertisements were injected with more original attributes.
However, Sixties advertising inherited Fifties hold-overs that worked so well during the Age of Eisenhower there was no need to change in the Age of Camelot. Budweiser's (R) "Where There's Life There's Bud" campaign continued for almost a generation with little modification. The picture-perfect paintings of sultry dames or smooth playboys with tall glasses of foamy brew poured before their eyes was so ingrained in the vernacular that MAD magazine, infamous for its parody advertisements, did a send-up featuring a woeful drunk under the title "Not Happier But Wiser". Despite this critical implication, having a slogan, jingle, or logo so indelibly a part of American language was free advertising.
The Sixties gave birth to its own classics rooted in crafty headlines and taglines designed to wheedle into the mass subconscious. Many were innocuous, others insipid. Of the latter, cigarettes slogans were often the most memorable, including one for Lucky Strike Filters that went "Show Me A Filter Cigarette That Really Delivers and I'll Eat My Hat!" While the verbiage may seem unwieldy, it was unforgettable when wed to a photograph of an attractive model whose hat has a large bite chomped out it. One ad in this lengthy campaign apparently shows a Vietnamese woman sheepishly smiling under her traditional straw headgear in perhaps one of the few tips of the hat, so to speak, to America's geo-political involvement in Southeast Asia (as a dumping ground for cigarettes, among other things). Another monumental ad of the day and thematic constant in American vernacular was the "Be Sociable, Have a Pepsi" campaign. Most of the ads included photo-realistic paintings of young middle class "Sociables" who "prefer Pepsi" cavorting at the ski lounge and penthouses of America. The ad not only encouraged its target audience to live life with gusto, the slogan was a mantra for a generation.
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