I have heard of spite fences. I have heard of architectural holdouts. But spite houses are a new thing to me. Spite fences are built by people who want to “spite” their neighbor, building a fence that often blocks the view of the unoffending neighbor or otherwise is designed to irritate him or her....
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We see this everywhere at some point towards the latter half of the 1960s. Helvetica font runs rampant. It’s everywhere: in the LIFE copy, in the ads. It permeates other publications, as well, but rarely as much as in LIFE. Not only that, but lower case. It’s more of that faux humility. Helvetica is...
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One feature I see again and again from the 1930s to the 1950s is the Gentlemanly Library. In so many cases, I imagine a permanent set at MGM or Warner’s where actors would sit down for their LIFE feature about Errol Flynn the Distinguished Scholar (or something). Or at least Errol the scholar when...
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So what happened here. How, in the span of 19 years, did we go from this to that? The first image is from a beer ad dated October 31, 1949. The second image is from a tick spray ad dated August 9, 1968. Most people might actually be more familiar with the 1949 image. ...
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This 2008/9 commercial for Van de Kamp’s fish is another indicator of a cultural shift. Yes, the kid is a mouthy, disrespectful brat–kids are kids, and they have always been kids*. So that’s not the point. Point is that in this commercial we’re saying, “The kid is right!” No longer is there an authoritarian...
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At some point in the mid-1960s, we start to see non-centeredness. This ad for Chevrolet “OK” Used Cars from 1968 is a prime example. The green box has been added by me. What’s at the center? Usually, the most important information is at the center of the image. But here we’ve got a bored...
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Stop reading this article. Are you titillated by the word raping? My website analytics indicate so. This has article has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with mysteries and neural pathways, so if that’s your thing, read on: Somewhere: 1966 My search for this elusive song began in 1981, when I...
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What about antiquity in ads from the 1960s? There is a point in advertising when we shift from forward-thinking (or even present-thinking) to thinking backwards. This Oldsmobile ad from April 11, 1969 is hardly the most prominent example of this, but it’s a start.
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Popular Mechanics April 1935. It doesn’t get much better than this. I could write a dissertation about the Popular Mechanics style circa 1930s, but I will spare you. Suffice to say this is complete balls-out, muscular journalism. Contrast with this mis-directed, faux-humble ad from 1968 which practically says, “We’re nobody.”
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Peanuts’ heyday was the 1960s, and in many ways Peanuts encapsulates so many of those points that The Sixties held so dear: Freudian psychology, juvenalia, faux humility. We have this Naive Art style (contrast this with the draftsman-like art of cartoonist Winsor McCay in Little Nemo in Slumberland). Everything in Peanuts is slightly askew,...
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