Follies of the Mad Men #124

These images both derive from Life magazine for November 11, 1949.

It must indicate something about capitalism circa 1949 that both ad campaigns chose this gigantic, brutal, triumphalist imagery. (Perhaps the two campaigns were created by the same agency even?) The postwar reign of corporate overlords has arrived. "Beware, puny humans! Our glorious products bestride the landscape and will crush you, unless you buy and consume mass quantities!"

Could there be a less-enticing public face for a company?

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 14, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Dreams and Nightmares, 1940s, Alcohol

16mm Theater #1

16mm Theater is my new series here on Weird Universe, in which I will share some of the stranger films in my 16mm collection. Today's feature: The Rainbow Bear, 1970

The only way I can describe this film is "acid trip," and if you watch it I'm sure you will agree. Weirder still is the fact that this was apparently made for children, as it was produced by American Educational Films. And the weirdest fact about this short is that it was directed by Bill Meléndez, perhaps best known for A Charlie Brown Christmas.



Sorry about the poor quality, my projector doesn't have a telecine mode and I don't have a proper video camera.

Posted By: Salamander Sam - Fri Feb 12, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Dreams and Nightmares, Drugs, Surrealism, Cartoons, 1970s

Matango

Just watched this last night. Magic mushrooms indeed!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 25, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Disasters, Dreams and Nightmares, Drugs, Food, Horror, Movies, 1960s, Asia

Time Out For Trouble

An evil, possessed clock destroys one family and revels in the troubles of a whole town. That's my kind of public-service announcement!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 24, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Accidents, Dreams and Nightmares, Horror, Documentaries, 1960s

Weird Canadian Commercials

In an effort to prove to Nethie that not all Canadian commercials are horrifically realistic scenes of brutal workplace accidents, I am pleased to present some of the weirdest commercials to grace our northern TV screens.

These are all part of the same campaign of ads for Mac's Milk's Frosters drinks. Basically, it's convenience store advertising some new flavours (not flavors) of slush drinks that they had just come out with. At least, I think that's what they were advertising. The whole WTF line of ad more or less just gave us insight into how deanged ad-men really are.



Yeah, I think Hate Crime is a good place to start. It really says nothing about the product in question, but speaks volumes about the sanity (or lack thereof) of those invoved in creating the commercial.

More in extended >>

Posted By: kingmonkey - Thu May 21, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Food, Advertising, Surrealism, Foreign Customs

The Powers of Congress

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 17, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Politics, 1940s

A Case of Spring Fever

The MST3K crew tackled this one years ago, but here's the raw original so you can insert your own funny talkback.

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 16, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Technology, 1940s

What’s On Your Mind?

Are we just a few steps from being able to read people's minds? Japanese researchers have discovered a way to process mindwaves by deciphering the images we see. In one experiment they flashed a series of letters on a screen and recorded the brain patterns of those watching. The software was able to break down the rough shapes of the letters into recognizable patterns. The Story. Won't be long now before we're all forced to wear tinfoil hats.

Posted By: Nethie - Mon May 11, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Body, Dreams and Nightmares, Science