U Date 'Em

A Quiz for the Advertising-encumbered

by Scott McComb

Advertising ages about as well-- and about as fast-- as a piece of raw meat left out in the sun. Still, for better or worse, we Late Capitalists are children of the Age of Advertising. We wake up to advertising, we move through a world filled with advertising, we go to sleep to advertising.

This immersion has many effects (knee-jerk consumption, delight in the simple act of spending, etc.). Among the secondardy benefits is the development of an acute sensitivity to grapic style. Ironists all, we become hyper-aware of not just the pitch, but the nature and the quality of the pitch. Visual virtuosos.

A lesser known result of our continuous exposure to the Big Pitch is that we also become unwitting social historians. So attuned are we to Those Who Sell that we become masters of graphic style. The way the ad looks-- the type and quality of the graphic, the font, the layout-- is a major part of our visual conditioning. Show a former hippie one of the original Doyle, Dane, and Bernbach Volkswagen ads (black and white, simple photo of a Beetle, big Helvetica text) and he or she will instantly be overcome by nostalgia for the 1960s.

How's YOUR visual virtuosity?

Just for fun, we've been going through the archives of 20th century print advertising and have selected 20 ads for you to look at-- and possibly remember with nostalgia. All you have to do is date them, figure out when they appeared. To help you along, we give you four choices of dates for each ad.

                                  1. Kotex.
                                  2. Avis.
                                  3. Olivetti.
                                  4. Barbasol Shaving Cream.
                                  5. Camel.
                                  6. Zenith.
                                  7. Dorothy Gray Salon.
                                  8. Kodachrome.
                                  9. Pepsodent.
                                10. Windows.
                                11. Charles Atlas.
                                12. General Electric Television.
                                13. Majestic Tubes.
                                14. Barbasol Deodorant.
                                15. Greyhound.
                                16. Jumpsuit.
                                17. Heathkit.
                                18. Lycra.
                                19. Coca-Cola.
                                20. Johnson's Wax.

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