Back When America Was Goofier - Gawker Comments

Back When America Was Goofier

famousauthor — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:23:37 EDT

Funny thing: I just saw that dancing couple on the golf course. They're still wearing the same clothes, though they've greyed and shrived a little.

famousauthor

Back When America Was Goofier

TripMcCane — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:10:33 EDT

Ah, for the bad old days when the only thing that was Goth was the Addams Family.

TripMcCane

Back When America Was Goofier

SarahHeartburn — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:49:46 EDT

@meechybee: As were, if memory serves, a lot of the guys who worked in advertising. (Wasn't that Dennis Quaid's job in Far From Heaven?)

SarahHeartburn

Back When America Was Goofier

CopyofBlueboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:46:10 EDT

@CopyofBlueboy: I apologize for my incoherence. Sex dungeons and Ray Conniff give me the vapors.

CopyofBlueboy

Back When America Was Goofier

CopyofBlueboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:45:15 EDT

@donmiguel: Me too. But which singers? The ones who go "Ba ba da da ba ba ba bow!" or the ones who sang the actual songs? My song favorite Ray Conniff Singers is "The Sweetest Sound"....it's the creepiest. It would be good for a horror sequence, where someone's getting tortured in a sex dungeon or something. Wait, what?

CopyofBlueboy

Back When America Was Goofier

meechybee — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:38:24 EDT

is it just me, or does every man in these ads look deep-in-the-closet?

the second guy is especially creepy -- as if rock hudson and jay leno had a baby.

meechybee

Back When America Was Goofier

donmiguel — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:36:24 EDT

@CopyofBlueboy: Ray Conniff ROCKS. I wanted to be one of his singers -- those folks who hummed on tracks.

@collegecallgirl: When I first read that I thought of the wife cutting of his air supply at the end -- so she could finally go on a cruise and maybe meet one of the oldster male dance escorts.

donmiguel

Back When America Was Goofier

clarknhilldale — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:35:44 EDT

@famousauthor: Tareyton had ads featuring men with black eyes, too. It was just about the punchin' for your right to smoke your fave shitty cig, which, given the middle-class white-breadyness of the models in these ads, made them a goof in their day.

clarknhilldale

Back When America Was Goofier

CopyofBlueboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:27:32 EDT

After she wraps those sandwiches, she's going to make a dress out of the saran wrap. That's why they're smiling their stunted, sexy smiles.

CopyofBlueboy

Back When America Was Goofier

Dickdogfood — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:17:58 EDT

We can make sandwiches.

Out here on the dance floor.

Dickdogfood

Back When America Was Goofier

famousauthor — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:13:59 EDT

@MrInBetween: Yep. Without a doubt that is the young Mark Shields, in his earlier career as a commercial artist's model. Not too many people are aware that that's how he got his start. As a child he posed for Norman Rockwell.

famousauthor

Back When America Was Goofier

crotchety — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:13:25 EDT

@MrInBetween: I thought it was a young Mel Gibson.

crotchety

Back When America Was Goofier

arguablythemostfamous — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:09:59 EDT

WHY ARE YOU MAKING SO MANY SANDWICHES???

arguablythemostfamous

Back When America Was Goofier

CopyofBlueboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:08:34 EDT

@disslexic: @if_i_only_had_a_heart: And a little Jackie Gleason Orchestra, too. Ahhh, how sweet it is.

CopyofBlueboy

Back When America Was Goofier

if_i_only_had_a_heart — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:03:50 EDT

@dado: darrin, you're fired

if_i_only_had_a_heart

Back When America Was Goofier

if_i_only_had_a_heart — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:02:58 EDT

@CopyofBlueboy: the ads are amazingly unbelievably blindingly sadly sadly sadly white
the ads

also, why the black eye on teh smoker? are they advocating domestic violence? is it the smoke of the beaten wife demographic?

if_i_only_had_a_heart

Back When America Was Goofier

DonPardoCalrissian — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:46:21 EDT

IH's consumer division made the best cars ever.

Also, yeah, American Apparel, if they were naked it would be perfect as their limbs block their naughtiest parts, just barely.

DonPardoCalrissian

Back When America Was Goofier

MrInBetween — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:44:34 EDT

In the Saran Wrap ad, isn't that a young Mark Sheilds? [www-tc.pbs.org]

MrInBetween

Back When America Was Goofier

lawyergay — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:41:05 EDT

@collegecallgirl: Thanks. Execution is everything.

lawyergay

Back When America Was Goofier

downlow — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:38:16 EDT

Oooh, my mom used to smoke those Tareytons! I used to sneak them from her all the time. They were so disgusting with that nasty charcoal filter. I was so glad when she finally switched to Marlboros.

downlow

Back When America Was Goofier

Hamilton Nolan — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:37:33 EDT

@unutterable: That's why I specified "mass media advertising" instead of more niche advertising from the cooler lifestyle mags you're talking about. Which can be cool. But still evil.

Hamilton Nolan

Back When America Was Goofier

ExecutiveIntern — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:32:54 EDT

@Clare: Domestic violence will have that effect on you.

ExecutiveIntern

Back When America Was Goofier

EvidenceOfAbsence — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:32:34 EDT

The white filter gives you mesothelioma.

The black filter gives you black lung.

Together, they can't figure out why dinner wasn't on the table when they got home.

EvidenceOfAbsence

Back When America Was Goofier

collegecallgirl — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:32:26 EDT

@lawyergay: I got and enjoyed the gist.

collegecallgirl

Back When America Was Goofier

Ed — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:26:05 EDT

"Uh honey - it's just Saran Wrap. Please put it down. There's nobody out there. Honey?"

Back When America Was Goofier

disslexic — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:17:46 EDT

@CopyofBlueBoy: Don't forget to add a few Percy Faith numbers to the dance mix.

disslexic

Back When America Was Goofier

tempest — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:17:28 EDT

Where's Lawrence Welk?!?

tempest

Back When America Was Goofier

unutterable — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:17:17 EDT

Your theory about mass advertising being behind the coolness curve is roundly disproven by the very excellent "The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism" by Thomas Frank. One can easily go through magazines right now and pick out equally uncool ads as those from the 50s and 60s, but any of the cooler lifestyle magazines will have ultra-hip advertising that has an active dialogue with "real cutting-edge culture."

And I apologize for this moment of earnestness, it's been a long day.

unutterable

Back When America Was Goofier

lawyergay — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:16:16 EDT

@lawyergay: oops...misfire

CAN'T FUCKING STAND ANYMORE!

sorry about that.

lawyergay

Back When America Was Goofier

DinaRonson — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:16:04 EDT

want.pink.scout. For sandwiches.

DinaRonson

Back When America Was Goofier

Clare — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:15:07 EDT

I think Tareyton lady's smoking more than just activated charcoal filtered cigarettes. Look at those dilated pupils!

Clare

Back When America Was Goofier

BalknChain — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:15:06 EDT

Meet the Boy Scouts! A whole new idea in low cost_____.

BalknChain

Back When America Was Goofier

lawyergay — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:14:44 EDT

@collegecallgirl: Totally, especially since he's all like, "Everything alright there, honey?" in that plummy baritone of his that she just CAN'

lawyergay

Back When America Was Goofier

disslexic — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:14:40 EDT

Tareyton: A Whole New Excuse to Beat Your Wife!

[Poor grammar in banner headline also noted.]

disslexic

Back When America Was Goofier

dado — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:14:19 EDT

McMahon and Tate created all of these.

dado

Back When America Was Goofier

BalknChain — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:14:16 EDT

I like the pink is for girls poster, very striking.

BalknChain

Back When America Was Goofier

CopyofBlueboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:11:59 EDT

I have a sudden, overpowering urge to listen to the Ray Conniff Orchestra.

CopyofBlueboy

Back When America Was Goofier

LoveHandles — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:11:11 EDT

@lawyergay: Who doesn't. Soooo many carbs.

LoveHandles

Back When America Was Goofier

collegecallgirl — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:09:46 EDT

It's all fun and games until the yellow-clad housewife with the crazed gleam in her eyes cuts off dopey hubby's air supply in one lightening-quick Saran Wrap assault before enjoying a delicious sandwich with mayo the way she likes it, GODAMNIT.

collegecallgirl

Back When America Was Goofier

disslexic — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:09:25 EDT

Meet The Flintstones for a whole new idea in low-cost transportation

disslexic

Back When America Was Goofier

kathotdog — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:08:48 EDT

The sandwich lady and her man look like an early Enzyte commerical

kathotdog

Back When America Was Goofier

Hamilton Nolan — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:05:38 EDT

@Gayyker: Ha. I was thinking of doing this as an American Apparel- parallel post but I couldn't find enough examples. Still, yes. Obvious predecessor.

Hamilton Nolan

Back When America Was Goofier

boreddusty — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:04:46 EDT

Dammit, Gayyker, I was just going to post the same thing.

boreddusty

Back When America Was Goofier

Gayyker — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:04:06 EDT

Do The Skate = American Apparel? Maybe it's just the Helvetica.

Gayyker

Back When America Was Goofier

friend_of_a_friend — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:03:19 EDT

Pink is for girls! It's time for the geighs to give it back....

friend_of_a_friend

Back When America Was Goofier

lawyergay — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:03:12 EDT

To be fair, I also teeter on the edge of hysteria when wrapping dozens upon dozens of sandwiches.

lawyergay

Back When America Was Goofier

SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:01:24 EDT

But this begs the question: were sandwiches ever not popular? I mean, I've not done the research here but they are quite good. Bread, meat, cheese, assorted veggery.

Excuse me while I go make one.

SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley

Back When America Was Goofier

TheHonJudgeSmails — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:00:04 EDT

The Hills
Perez Hilton
How I Met Your Mother
Gossip Girl
John Mayer

We're still pretty fucking goofy.

TheHonJudgeSmails