Friday, February 15, 2008

Parly-voo

Hello sailor!


life 1956 sailors


In the 1950s an advertisement for disposable razorblades could use obscure words like 'matelot' and French phrases like 'entente cordiale' without raising an eyebrow. Perhaps in more low-brow publications they used a different advertisement, with text along the lines of "Gillette razorblades good! Buy Gillette Razorblades! NOW!"


In the 2000s, marketers have learned that if you appeal to the lowest common denominator, you can use the same ad across all markets and social groups; that's why it's called "common", after all. The equivalent ad today would have some over-waxed and over-tanned male model swiping a disposable razor across his face, while the word "X-treme!" exploded across a background filled with shiny stainless steel and blue light.


I wish we could take advertising back to the days when they believed they had to appeal to us on our best level, not on our worst.


On a sidenote, I do wonder what these two are talking about:




Sailor 1: Nice pom-pom hat you got there, Sean Penn.
Sailor 2: Mordre moi, merde pour cervaux.

3 Comments:

Blogger an9ie said...

"I wish we could take advertising back to the days when they believed they had to appeal to us on our best level, not on our worst."

Hear, hear!

THanks for saying it so I didn't have to :)

11:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Slogan wise I agree, but I would still much prefer to look at the half naked model with the towel wrapped around him, his body still glistening from having a shower YUM!

7:38 PM  
Blogger Blandwagon said...

I think inspiring women to go into reveries of lust counts as appealling to us on our worst level, fishgosquish.

10:27 AM  

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