Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17115
Location: North Carolina
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 Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2023 9:29 am Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 3-19-23 |
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Here’s few more of those gorgeous magazine ads for 1960s automobiles. The combination of incredible artwork and imaginative ad copy makes the fun to analyze and discuss.
They aren’t just doing a “hard sell” on the public, they’re documenting an aspect of our culture 60+ years ago, allowing us to see just how much things have changed.
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Outrageous Magazine Ads for 1960s Cars
| Gord Green wrote: | | Bud, don't misunderstand that I'm suggesting that these ads INTENDED to disregard the negative aspects of 50's-60's society. To the contrary, they showed the positive, vital spirit that was able to transcend the negativity of that era, and the same type of spirit that will allow us to overcome the impediments of our own time. |
Well said, sir! I stand corrected. 
Your comment reflects a perfect understanding of what the ads do and what the era was like that produced them. When I finished the above comment yesterday I tried to find a 2019 Pontiac ad, just to compare the way they were pitching their product these days.
But that's not how Madison Avenue does things now. The culture and the technology have changed, and TV commercials are the medium used to convey the message. Flashy, fast, and noisy, the television spots are the polar opposite of the magazine ads which used excellent artwork and gentle messages to suggest ways to improve the lives of the people who bought those gorgeous cars.
Ah, the Good Old Days. How we miss 'em.  ____________________________________________________________________
Outrageous Magazine Ads for 1960s Cars
| scotpens wrote: | | Notice how the artist exaggerated the car's proportions in those 1960 Pontiac ads. |
The front end was indeed exaggerated somewhat, making it look wider than it really should be, but there's also an exaggeration of the perspective.
The artist painted the car the way it would look if it had been photographed with one end (the front in that case) much closer to the viewer, thus making the front appear larger. Actually, most of the paintings by Fiztpatrick and Kaufman used that same method to give the cars a dramatic appearance.
The artists did cheat a little, however, because if the viewer was really that close to the front, we'd see less of the street between us and the car. The photo you posted for comparison shows that really well, scotpens.
In the painting below, the same thing was done to the rear of the car, but without the "cheating". We see the grass between us and the rear of the car because we're looking down at the trunk at a steeper angle than our view of the hood in the previous picture.
The exaggerated perspective is even more dramatic in the painting of the Cadillac, because it's viewed as if we were squatting down low and very close to the right rear bumper.
However, in this next picture the artists did indeed distort the proportions the way you mentioned! That car is as long as a limousine! 
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Outrageous Magazine Ads for 1960s Cars
| Gord Green wrote: | I think the paintings were to reflect how you FEEL when you think about those cars. It was a case of selling the "sizzle", not the steak.
The paintings portray the "mood" of the cars more than the actual technical correct image of them.
In other words . . . .ART! |
You're exactly right, Gord.
I view the ads as a combination of both the pride we felt in our technology and the pride we felt in our culture.
The paintings exaggerate the cars in the same way (and for the same reason) as the outrageous text that goes with them. Naturally, the ads were designed to encourage people to buy the cars — but they were also deigned to instill a certain pride in the owners.
Actually the early 1960s was a period of great pride for all Americans, with the space program hitting the ground running after President Kennedy's 1961 announcement about the Moon missions.
The Kennedy era has been compared to Camelot, because Kennedy united the nation in a manner similar to what King Arthur did.
About half of the ads I've found have been for cars that predated the assassination of President Kennedy, and so far I've only posted ads from 1963 or earlier, with one exception, an ad from a '64 model that was probably created in 1963.
I didn't plan it that way, it's just a coincidence. But I can't help wondering if the wildly optimistic mood that enveloped the nation during the Kennedy era might have influenced Pontiac's decision to create those imaginative ads.
They featured the incredible paintings by Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman (instead of just using photographs), and they included the flowery prose which described owning the cars like it was a life changing experience!
So, I guess my enthusiasm for these automobile advertisements is due in part to my wistful longing for a period in history that had so much optimism and hope for the future.
Maybe that kind of culture will never happen again . . . but then again, maybe it can. 
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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