April 13, 2008
Insane — and insanely great — retro ad for diet soda.
(Via Andrew Sullivan.)
ADDED: I don't remember seeing that ad, which seems to be from the early 70s period when I didn't have a TV — and when things like that would have driven me to ranting about "Stepford Wives" and brain-dead "Middle Americans." (Hey, no one says "Middle Americans" anymore. It was a Nixon phrase.) In the 60s, however, I watched tons of TV. So here's a 60s diet soda ad, with some of the same themes, but an attitude about women that is much better:
More feminist, isn't it? The man is ridiculous, and the woman doesn't need him. She's beautiful — and slim, of course — which is very attractive to him, but she's not doing it for him. Here — let's splat a whole wedding cake on him to prove the point.
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23 comments:
It's wrong, though. The guy doesn't much care how you look. He cares how you treat him.
At least the guy you're living with. The sexual novelty has worn off long ago, not that your continued presence isn't important.
An equivalent ad for guys would need a dog for the equivalent having fun together scenes, but it's hard to see how to work in diet Tab. Men don't suffer from the perfect love fantasy.
I myself recommend diet teas, which are great today. Zero calories, nice taste, 16oz size. Snapple is no longer the only choice and prices have plummeted.
It's a variation on the Stupid-Man Rule, which is now prevalent in commercials. Usually it's the Stupid-White-Man Rule which applies, but there are exceptions.
Speaking of perfect love, the sidebar Amazon ads are really good. I get, for example, a list of Derrida books.
Evertyhing you need offered according to what you like.
The is probably the lasting effect of computers. Targeted ads that are interesting to you alone.
The tab ads not so much.
I'm getting a lot of ads for Nikon lenses.
That's cause the spiders think that they've caught another shutterbug in their web of shopping!
When "more feminist" stops meaning "anti male," I might become more feminist.
I don't think it's "anti-male" of that woman not to care about the man who is ogling her. She's into her own thing, which happens to be drinking a soda. He gets hit by a wedding cake to symbolize that she has no need for him. Why should she need that guy? Anyway, he's a smoker.
I wasn't limiting myself to this ad alone.
smoker? That dudes hair made him out to be a Larry Fine wannabe!
Doesn't "mind-sticker" sound like something in a David Cronenberg movie?
Let's not forget The O'Kaysions "(I'm a) Girl Watcher"?
Or The Bob Crewe Generation's "Music to Watch Girls By" which was used in a Pepsi ad.
And, hey, the Doublemint Twins!
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
Michael brings you to a park
He sings and its dark when the clouds come by
Yellow slickers up on swings
Like puppets on strings hanging in the sky
Theyll splash home to suppers in wallpapered kitchens
Their mothers will scold
But Michael will hold you
To keep away cold till the sidewalks are dry
Why?
Because you're a mind-sticker
A mind-sticker like a feminist cactus tree
'cause you're so busy being free
Let's not forget The O'Kaysions "(I'm a) Girl Watcher"?
Totally off-topic but I always thought that was a black guy singing that!
The 60s was when the arts and sciences of modern mass advertising and mass marketing as we now know them to be were being honed like never before. Vance Packard and all that. Clearly both Coke and Pepsi saw young women as their marketing targets for diet soft drinks and they believed that it was young women who purchased these products. With that you can see who they were manipulating and how. Ann's still taking the bait.
Be a "Mind-sticker"
LoL.
Ms. Althouse,
Interesting ad, the first one that is. I have seen the second one. Could you post more vintage videos of music from the 60's. Like the Roy Orbison video of Cryin. That's a lovely song. Great opening harmony.
"Ann's still taking the bait."
How so? I see that it's bait, therefore I'm not taking it. I certainly don't drink diet soda.
What's interesting is how little things have changed. Sure, the pitch is more sophisticated now, and it's no longer acceptable to portray women as existing solely to appeal to men.
On the other hand, women still try to be thin - even thinner, in fact. The models in those ads are slender but healthy-looking, in contrast to the almost anorexic look that (too) many young women have today.
And, to be honest, most women still want to be "mind-stickers" in the minds of the men they love. "Even when you're not with him, you can still be on his mind" - isn't that a sentiment most women today would agree with, even if they shy away from saying so explicitly?
Not to say that men don't feel that way, too, but my empirical observation is that women either feel it more strongly or else understand the feeling better. Am I wrong about that?
Tab tastes like ass.
There's something about that first ad that reminds me of an early SNL ad parody.
"Tab tastes like ass."
I hope you only know that because Titus told you, cause otherwise I don't wanna know!
1. tastes like ass
foul, rancid, bitter, or otherwise unpleasant to the palate; disgusting; poor flavor
cook1: "Ugh, this stew tastes like ass."
cook2: "I'll say. It tastes like old middle-class Pennsylvania Hillary supporters steeping in warm Tab diet soda with cream puffs."
"Ann's still taking the bait."
How so? I see that it's bait, therefore I'm not taking it.
Punch cartoon, two pigs inspecting a proffered bag :
Alphonse : Maurice! Don't go in there! It's a poke!
Maurice : But Alphonse, there's garbage in there!
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