tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post8155343708308310166..comments2024-03-28T21:56:51.675-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Live-blogging the commercials from Super Bowl '85agnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-42265416014414363072013-02-08T23:19:55.469-05:002013-02-08T23:19:55.469-05:00Someone already mentioned it, but there were two s...Someone already mentioned it, but there were two sentimental commercials I saw: <br /><br />* The Budweiser one where a man raises a Clyesdale from a small colt, gives it away , and then it comes running up to him to greet him after he come to see it perform. <br /><br />* Paul Harvey: "And God created a farmer." Car ad. The dialogue was about the qualities of a farmer and about his son wanting to grow up to be just like his father. <br /><br />---<br /><br />They were different in tone at least from the others. asnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-57301350098124410492013-02-08T23:16:36.640-05:002013-02-08T23:16:36.640-05:00I stopped watching most of the ads. But the ones ...I stopped watching most of the ads. But the ones I remember: <br /><br />* "Where do babies come from?" The father tries to answer his small son's question. Apparently this is an ad for a car. <br /><br />* "I am the next big thing." Two actors fight it out verbally as to who is some phone company's spokesman. Then a third guy comes in to steal the show. This commercial went on forever. <br /><br />* People from different movie sets(?) race to get to a Coke mirage. There's Lawrence of Arabia and a train of camels. There's a bus full of Vegas showgirls. There's a Wild Wild West group. <br /><br />---<br /><br />They were excruciating to watch. <br /><br /> asnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-43606384774856516842013-02-06T18:26:44.695-05:002013-02-06T18:26:44.695-05:00Yeah, there's fitness crazes and then there...Yeah, there's fitness crazes and then there's insecure revenge fantasies. Rising-crime sees the former, falling-crime the latter.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-19334086642084963992013-02-06T14:11:45.343-05:002013-02-06T14:11:45.343-05:00If only the Calvin Klein guy were offering to help...<i>If only the Calvin Klein guy were offering to help the male viewers get back at that punk who kicked sand in his face, the comparison to the mid-century would be perfect.</i><br /><br />Apparently Charles Atlas founded his company in the early 1920s, launched the "bully kicks sand in my face campaign in the late 1920s" and was a roaring success through the '20s.<br /><br />No doubt this is be explained with "Of course people wanted to become more powerful and able to defend themselves in the age of rising violence" (rather than being "weird"). <br /><br />Google's ngram for "body building" peaks in 1940, after a sharp velocity of growth from 1920 onwards, while the more frequent term "bodybuilding" really takes off in the late 70s to 80s.<br /><br />Aerobics took off in the 1980s as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-19119809254741233322013-02-05T18:29:43.569-05:002013-02-05T18:29:43.569-05:00" I'd think the company was marketing wit..." I'd think the company was marketing with an eye toward wives and girlfriends, yet it was a total turn off to me. "<br /><br />Maybe it was selling a role-playing fantasy to the straight male audience. "Wear our underwear, and you'll get this ripped."<br /><br />Like you said, girls aren't so into the steroids and gym rat look, but guys obsess over it -- that's who they imagine themselves as in today's video games and porno videos. Neither of which the girls are that into.<br /><br />If only the Calvin Klein guy were offering to help the male viewers get back at that punk who kicked sand in his face, the comparison to the mid-century would be perfect.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-90728019352787694462013-02-05T15:55:59.264-05:002013-02-05T15:55:59.264-05:00The later half of the '50s wasn't too bad....The later half of the '50s wasn't too bad. That was the very end of the falling-crime period, when the irony, sarcasm, and detachment was more or less spent. That was more the mid-'30s through the '40s and even into the earlier '50s. Think of the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, flat affect in movie-star speech, "wise-cracking dames," etc.<br /><br />And TV was only part, probably a small part, of the overall ad culture. I don't have any idea what radio ads were like, but do a Google Image search for "comic book ads 1950s". They have that cartoony, extreme zaniness that recent ads do.<br /><br />And all kinds of unwholesome, dorky themes that stoke the fires of desperation and worthlessness -- Hypnotize women to obey your commands! Add 3 inches of pure steel to your biceps! You just don't see that kind of stuff in the '80s.<br /><br />Here's a great searchable database of ads from the '30s through '60s, though mostly mid-'30s through the '50s.<br /><br />http://gogd.tjs-labs.com/<br /><br />Browse around by keyword, product type, or brand. And in either table or gallery form. You'd be surprised how much wacky-zany stuff is in there, sassy women, doofus dads, sappiness, and again the attempt to shame the audience. In fact, here are all the ones tagged with "shame":<br /><br />http://gogd.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?keyword=SHAME&match=EXACT<br /><br />One thing that comes across strongly in mid-century ads is how self-doubting and helpless people felt -- otherwise advertisers couldn't have had such success for so long. That was advertising's heyday.<br /><br />People were more confident, carefree, and had a can-do attitude in the '80s, so you don't find the appeal to worthlessness.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-31169001628195996112013-02-05T09:53:07.360-05:002013-02-05T09:53:07.360-05:00I know you're keen on binding together cultura...I know you're keen on binding together cultural shifts with crime rates, but the first impression a young person gets from these ads from 1985 is that they share a level of earnestness which is also found in golden age of television commercials (that is, the low crime era) and which has been absent since the rise of irony, sarcasm, and vulgarity since the 90's.<br /><br />Couple of ads from thirty years before in 1955: <br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apD9_hLxqE0<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8vla-m0mxU<br /><br />On the other hand, the 50's and early 60's had the authoritative patriarchal narrator in many advertisements, something which is neither found in the high crime 70's and 80's nor in the low crime 90's and 2000's. Americans had much more trust in institutions, big business, and government in the last low crime era than in either the 70's/80's or today.Ranjihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01991158226921895446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-85206795811702849942013-02-04T21:39:16.193-05:002013-02-04T21:39:16.193-05:00The ads this year were really bad.
The Paul Har...The ads this year were really bad. <br /><br />The Paul Harvey farmer ad by Dodge was uplifting.<br /><br />I missed the Clydesdale one, but I'm always a sucker for them.<br /><br />Maybe you could do some investigation/post on the characteristics/demographics of the people who do the "creative" side of marketing these days...because they stink. Who ARE these people?<br /><br />From this female's point of view, a really bad ad was the Calvin Klein ad (a short form of which was running today on ESPN). It wasn't provocative or anything, but typical of most Klein ads, was full of what looked like gay male models, abs fully ripped, bodies lithe, lean, yet not looking like athletes or models of masculinity but instead like gay guys, gay guys who spend all day in the gym either to be eye candy for other gay guys or to be underwear models for Calvin Klein.<br /><br />We women are the major purchasers of underwear for our husbands, and all I can say is it takes much more than defined muscles to make man look masculine. In fact, a guy doesn't have to have defined muscles to look masculine at all.<br /><br />These guys looked faggy, both because of the way they posed and because of their particular look of musculature.<br /><br />Since gay males of some wealth probably buy Calvin Klein anyway and because the gay market is small and limited, I'd think the company was marketing with an eye toward wives and girlfriends, yet it was a total turn off to me. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-22678911376939318392013-02-04T15:47:31.098-05:002013-02-04T15:47:31.098-05:00Wow, you are correct. Our culture has really deca...Wow, you are correct. Our culture has really decayed. Thanks for the memories.FWGnoreply@blogger.com