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All American Ads of the 60's (Midi Series)

All American Ads of the 60's (Midi Series)

3-8228-1159-9$39.99 / Taschen America LLC
Manufacturer: Taschen


Price Range: $25.72 - $39.99


All American Ads of the 60's (Midi Series)
User Reviews
did we really dress like this?!
rating: 5

what an incredible look into the not-so-distant past! ads always show an airbrushed version of reality, and it's funny to see 60s products like polaroid cameras and nehru suits presented as if they were the cat's pyjamas. a great gift book for any graphic designers or advertising-types on your list.


Time travel back to the 60's!
rating: 5

This is an excellent way to take a trip back to the 60's and some of the culture of that time. Look at those cars! How about that Maidenform Bra ad! How about those fashions and hairstyles! If you want to learn or remember some of what was popular then this is an excellent, thoroughly enjoyable way to do it!


These books are a great resource, with limitations
rating: 5

These books are a great resource and provide hours of enjoyable reading. My graphic designer keeps borrowing them for reference. When I was a kid, I used to love going through the old copies of TIME and NEWSWEEK...just to read the ads! I think they provide more insight into popular culture than articles.

There are some limitations. The source of materials seems to be from particular magazines, and perhaps some manufacturers did not consent to some ads. For example, in the Consumer Products section, there are ads galore for the SEARS bicycles, but NONE for the Schwinn "Sting Ray" - certainly the icon of mid-60's bicycling. Similarly, the car ads appear to favor big Cadilliacs and some offbeat marques. Perhaps the Euro-centric view of things colors (colours?) this.

Also, there is a certain amount of mockery in the book. Each section features a "winner" advertisment, which is often derided for its naievity or for its promotion of racial stereotypes, overconsumption, etc.

But, while our European friends may be laughing at us, it is clear that they lavish attention upon our degenerate culture - four volume's worth!

My only other suggestion is get a magnifying glass. Many ads are reproduced in quarter-page size and are hard to read. Many more are oddly cropped at the edges. While all four books are great, the 50's and 60's may be the best nostalga trip for many - and an interesting commentary on the evolution of popular culture during that time.


I agree with the other reviews, but . . .
rating: 3

being a car fan, I know about car ads from the 1960s. I have two major gripes:

1) They did not get the cars right. For example, often they would call a car a '66 when it was a '67, no doubt because the ad probably appeared in October 1966. Still, it would help to get it right.

2) One of the most interesting aspect of the 1960s was the psychedelication of American popular culture, and automobiles reflected this, exemplified best by the musclecars of the late 1960s. What about Dodge's "Scat Pack - the cars with the bumblebee stripes!"? Or Plymouth's Road Runner and the ad where the car looks like it's breathing? AMC's Big Bad colors? Pontiac's "The Judge can be bought"?

So some of you may be thinking, "Oh, what a geek!" but I wonder what else they could have gotten "more" right if they had actually did more research since they, I presume, aren't American.




Space Age meets the Hippie
rating: 5

Wow! was my first reaction upon devouring these heavy, nearly one thousand, slick pages of incredibly square, hip, liberal, conservative, and completely cool advertising. Some of the fashions, hairstyles, designs, attitudes, and language that you'll encounter will make you laugh, cry, deeply ponder, and wonder how the world could have changed so much since that era.

The book begins with a couple of pages of commentary by the author explaining the power of advertising and consumer consumption in the 1960s. If someone doesn't read English, then he can read it in 4 other languages - German, French, Spanish, and an Asian language (not Chinese, but possibly Japanese or Korean).

Most of the ads are in color, though a few are in their original black-and-white design. The ads are divided into nine categories, starting with the early part of the decade, progressing to the end. There are approximately 60 pages on alcohol and tobacco, 160 pages on automobiles, 100 on business and industry, 160 pages on consumer products, 50 pages on entertainment, 150 pages on fashion and beauty, 100 pages on food and beverage, 60 pages on furniture and appliances, and 50 pages on the travel industry. Thus, the book is not geared towards men or women or any age group.

Inside, you'll find the one-and-only Groucho Marx declaring, "If you don't serve Smirnoff (vodka)....hide the label!"

For those who think that foreign imports are just little toys, an ad for the 1966 Dodge Dart proclaims, "Join the Dodge Rebellion. Stamp out cramped compacts. Up with man-sized Dodge Dart."

One of the more surprising ads was for Motorola television in 1962. About a dozen nude, smiling people (you can't see private parts) are outside in a meadow, all gathered around a tiny television set displaying the face of a little boy.

In 1965, the Hoover company shows a smiling man in a neat little shirt and tie with thick black glasses and a crewcut surrounded by a mop, dustpan, and other household goods. The ad declares, "Chances are you won't marry a guy who cooks, cleans, irons, scrubs, and sweeps." The next picture shows several vacuum cleaners and other household products and says, "We've thought about that."

"How come all non-conformists look alike?" In 1969, with a picture of a Janis Joplin look-alike, Simplicity states, "Sew your own thing."

"When your TV screen goes black for an hour, you're watching ABC," the company's ad says in 1969. "Because ABC is five major television stations that are the leaders in community-minded broadcasting. Each one, for instance, is currently involved in programming exclusively for black people. On San Francisco's KGO-TV, it's `Black Dignity,' an hour program every Sunday. Originated and produced by black people. For black people."

To appeal to the teenage mod community, who apparently were threatening to consume mass quantities of diet colas, the sugar industry began telling us that we need more sugar in our lives. In 1966, we see a girl with a slightly thick midriff in a bikini on a surfboard with the caption, "Lisa needs a sugarless, energy-less soft drink like a kangaroo needs a baby buggy. Lisa's strictly the go-go type. After sunning, shopping, afternoon tennis date, and discothèquing into the wee hours, she's up first thing to catch the early morning surf. What keeps Lisa from washing out? Energy...And sugar's got it. That's right, sugar. Everything in it is go. Note to people on the go: Exhaustion may be dangerous. It can even rob you of your resistance to illness. But sugar helps offset exhaustion - puts back energy fast. Synthetic sweeteners put back nothing. So play safe - make sure you get sugar every day. People need what sugar's got.....18 calories per teaspoon....and it's all energy."

That's all I needed to hear. I'm off to energize my life with some Krispy Kreme donuts. For my health, you know.




All American Ads of the 60's (Midi Series)









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