Kenner 1973 Toy Catalog, #12
Perhaps the only time in history that a Ford Pinto was deemed exciting.
Comments
Oh come on! No Pinto has ever come up fast! At least not without catching on fire.
Posted by Madd Maxx on 01/09/09 at 01:07 PM
Sonic Sound! You'll notice it with you aural hearing!
Posted by kingmonkey in Athens, Ontario on 01/09/09 at 02:07 PM
Note that one of the kids is black. Early '70s advertising for kids often portrays black and white kids playing together at a time when race relations were tense in some parts of the country. I know it's just hawking product, but it's one of the distinctions of '70s ads that I like. Watch '70s TV commercials for kids products--toys and food--and you'll see the same. I'd say it was more common in the '70s that it is today, unfortunately.
Examples:
Mego Superman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLU7xFuNTms
Alpha Bits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTr7M0kWBoc
Examples:
Mego Superman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLU7xFuNTms
Alpha Bits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTr7M0kWBoc
Posted by Brent in trepid on 01/10/09 at 10:37 AM
Brent: Good observation. My family, from the time I was tiny to today, have always had people of every color, race, gender, whatever running through the house. My friends, and my both of my daughter's friends, have come in every size, shape, and sexuality known. At one point during my daughter's high school years I had a 6'8" tall gay guy with a 10" mohawk running in and out of my house. How come I never see THAT in advertising????
Posted by AGFH on 01/10/09 at 10:48 AM
Patty - true. I know I could have been doing anything when the husband came home and he wouldn't notice, as long as the kid was ironing her friends hair in the middle of the living room.
Posted by AGFH on 01/10/09 at 03:00 PM
About the mohawk kid, one of the most effective forms of advertising manipulation is to lead the viewer to identify with or want to become the person in the ad. So I could imagine viewers, especially some kids, wanting the product because s/he likes or wants to be the person in the ad who uses the product. The mohawk kid's identity would be inseparable from the product.
A good example is the VW Cabriolet 'Pink Moon' ad. It conveys an ethos, and the viewer doesn't want the car so much as to be the kind of person who would experience what those in the commercial experience.
That's a theory, anyhow. And how many men--straight and gay--bought Calvin Klein underwear because they wanted to be or be with Mark Walberg?
A good example is the VW Cabriolet 'Pink Moon' ad. It conveys an ethos, and the viewer doesn't want the car so much as to be the kind of person who would experience what those in the commercial experience.
That's a theory, anyhow. And how many men--straight and gay--bought Calvin Klein underwear because they wanted to be or be with Mark Walberg?
Posted by Brent in trepid on 01/10/09 at 07:56 PM
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Category: Toys | Advertising | 1970s