Category:
1970s

Macho Cologne

Introduced by Faberge in 1976. It was described as being "packaged with a startlingly new futuristic look." Which is to say that it was packaged as a giant phallus.

I like the ad promoting it as a Father's Day gift. I can just imagine a son or daughter giving this as a present to their dad.



Indianapolis Star - Oct 30, 1976



The Pocono Record - June 17, 1977


The marketing of the cologne must have gained some notoriety. I found a brief discussion of it in an academic study of marketing — Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs for Sale (1987):

The juxtaposition of the grossly physical with the structurally normative produces a profound effect: Norms and values become saturated with emotion while emotions are ennobled through contact with values. The monolithic (or rather, ithyphallic) print ad for Macho cologne run by Faberge several years ago, effectively condensing referents to male sexuality, aggression, wealth, and ethnic stereotyping in its rhetorical and iconographic symbolism, nicely illustrates this principle. Thus, symbols function as both storehouse and powerhouse, encoding information which is ultimately authoritative.


Update: Thanks to Brian for drawing our attention to Pierre Cardin Man's cologne, which also featured a suggestively shaped bottle.

And I just noticed that the Father's Day ad features both Macho cologne and Pierre Cardin Man's cologne. So if you gave your dad both, what message would you be sending him?

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 26, 2017 - Comments (8)
Category: Advertising, 1970s, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

Mystery Illustration 42



The splendid sartorial sense of this fellow is explicitly deemed by the advertisement to be inducement to trust his taste in another area. What product would you imagine his clothes are justifying. Liquor? Cars? Hairspray?

The answer is here.

And after the jump.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 13, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Fashion, Advertising, 1970s

The BS Patriots



1971: After relocating the Boston Patriots from Boston to Foxborough (a half-hour south), team owner Billy Sullivan decided he needed to rename the team. So they became the Bay State Patriots.

A month later he changed the name again, to the New England Patriots. The reason this time: a radio announcer had referred to the team as the "BS Patriots." Sullivan explained, "We didn't think that abbreviation would reflect well on either the team or the league."

The Palm Beach Post - Mar 23, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 05, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Odd Names, Sports, 1970s

Volkswagen Beetle Limousine

So maybe you don't want to turn your Beetle into a lawnmower...



Original ad here.




Article here.


Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 05, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, 1970s, Cars

Gotta Get Over the Hump



Your new theme song for Wednesdays.

Gotta get over da hump!

More on the creators.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 29, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1970s

Pack It Right



This Department of the Army video continually uses a woman in a well-stuffed bikini to illustrate how to "pack it right."



Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 28, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Government, PSA’s, Sex Symbols, 1970s

The Vidifont Titling Device

How did TV put a caption on the screen in the Sixties?

Graphics, including all title graphics (i.e. "President Lyndon B. Johnson” or "Walter Cronkite”) were set in type or drawn by graphic artists. The graphic was photographed using 35-mm film, the film developed, and a 35-mm slide generated. The time to generate a slide exceeded one hour. The slide, when used, was placed in a special projector, scanned by a television camera, and keyed into the studio video feed. This method was known as ‘Superimposition’. Since the news department had to be prepared to identify any speaker who might appear before the cameras during the convention, Bass was faced with creating in excess of 4000 slides in advance for each convention. If an individual who was not a delegate or an alternate was called upon to give a seconding speech or to participate in an interview, a title slide probably would not be available. Bass was seeking an instantaneous, graphics-quality titling capability solution to the problem. The goal was to produce graphics that could be transparently mixed with artwork created using traditional methods.


Imagine then the delight when the Vidifont device was invented.



Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 24, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Technology, Television, 1960s, 1970s

Star Wars Celica GT

Back in 1977, as a stunt to help promote the opening of Star Wars, Toyota created a custom Star Wars Celica GT. Then they raffled off the car. Somebody won it, but nobody knows who. The fate of this car has become something of an obsession among fans of the movie. Was it destroyed? Is it still sitting in a garage somewhere? The mystery endures...

More info: SpeedHero, jalopnik





Santa Ana Register - Oct 8, 1977

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 23, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Cars, Movies, 1970s

Makes bomb threat from jail

October 1971: While being booked on charges of malicious mischief at Los Angeles police headquarters, Frank Elby Taylor asked to exercise his right to make a phone call. He was allowed to do this, so he called the airport and made a bomb threat. The call was quickly traced back to the police station. The police got Elby out of his cell and booked him again on felony charges.

Reno Gazette-Journal - Oct 30, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 21, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, 1970s, Pranks

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