Category — Nostalgia

or WTFuturism?

I love speculation about the future, mostly because it usually goes so wrong. For instance, in 1985, Ebony Magazine published an article called “Portraits of the Stars: What They May Look Like in the Year 2000“. In it, they commissioned an artist named Nathan Wright to depict what he thinks “today’s” (1985′s) artists would look like in the year 2000. The best part… Michael Jackson. Read on for the pictures:
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TAG Heuer recently ran an ad campaign for their Monaco brand watch. It was a contest to guess the winner of the above “Duel” between two important figures in the history of the Monaco series, Steve McQueen and Lewis Hamilton. The contest officially closed on June 10th, 2009. Apparently, it’s been one of TAG Heuer’s most popular online contests ever.

According to TAG Heuer, Lewis Hamilton won the Duel… but I don’t think anyone wins with this ad. They sliced up the original footage from the Steve McQueen 1971 film Le Mans to shoehorn his image into the ad, and then used a poor quality voice actor that sounds nothing like him to dub over his lines. Ironically though, McQueen’s shoehorn/voiced over performance is better than Lewis Hamilton’s actual performance. And McQueen’s been dead for almost 30 years. Overall, the ad is fairly lame on that level. Still, it has racing footage, so I can’t call it all bad. Check out the full version:
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This is a new feature on AdSavvy, it’s called “Best Ad Ever”. And keeping with our extended overuse of hyperbole, we’ll have a new one every week, or every day. I’m not sure yet. Maybe it won’t be back. Whatever.

Little Mac is back. After fifteen years, he’s ready to reclaim his title as W.V.B.A. champ. Fake documentaries are so ‘in’ right now, and this one is excellent. Well played Nintendo, well played.

Official site

PS- I’ve had the above website in my browser for the past hour and a half. I can’t stop listening to the theme music.

Check out the original Punch Out!! ad:
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Swine Flu public service announcements from 1976.

In 1976, one single army recruit died from the so-called Swine Flu. People panicked, the government panicked. After the dust cleared, the government had wasted hundreds of millions of dollars, and there were over 500 people crippled for life via Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) caused by the vaccine. Also, the vaccine killed more people than the flu did.

Moral:
Government is more dangerous than Swine flu. Don’t panic.

Time Magazine just published a series of photos of Barack Obama taken in 1980, when he was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles. They were taken by Lisa Jack, who was an aspiring photographer at the time, and asked him to pose for some black and white photographs for her portfolio. The word Serendipity has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate; this is a good example of serendipity.

Read on for the rest of the pics:
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Just in time for Christmas, you can get your darling daughter or niece a special collectors edition Barbie commemorating a classic film. This particular one portrays a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’, when wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels is brutally attacked by bloodthirsty crows who are hell-bent on killing the human race, kids will love it. She even has the classy green suit from the movie.
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The Alfa Romeo badge has a very heraldic, ancient feel to it. Very classy. But what does it mean, and why the hell does it have a giant snake eating a man?

Well, the owners of Alfa Romeo (originally called A.L.F.A. for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, which is translated as Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company) wanted a logo that was associated with the city of Milan, so they used symbols that Milan had used since the Crusades. The red cross is typical Christian symbol of medieval heraldry and used extensively throughout the crusaides. Back then, seeing a bunch of guys with red crosses painted on them didn’t mean “medic”, it meant: Run for your life.

The man in the serpents mouth is a bit more controversial. It’s a symbol called a biscione, and the man in the image is alternatively described as a child (the modern interpretation) or a Saracen or Moor (aka: a Muslim). So the whole serpent motif is all about the Christians Crusaders’ defeat of the infidels. Yeah, pretty strange.
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McCain’s recent ad, Man In The Arena, is surprisingly good looking considering his other recent ads. Now, I’m talking from a purely aesthetic point of view. As far as substance goes, this ad offers nothing more than Obama’s American Promise, and everything I said about that ad can be said about this one. But still, it’s very effective advertising; more so, I think, than anything Obama has offered so far.

McCain’s ads to date have been almost entirely negative, usually with a disgusted sounding voice-over talking about things Obama has either done or not done. They were particularly acerbic and difficult to watch. This ad is different though, it optimistic, focused on McCain, and I think it portrays him in a better light to those who don’t really care about issues anyway.
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PopCrunch has this odd advertisement for the Love Rug, which was a perfect example of 1970s freakiness. Made of polyester, of course, the advertisement offers it as an inanimate object to complete the threesome you’ve always dreamed of.

Heres the complete text of the ad:
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