The much-anticipated sequel to In Print #1! This edition will be covering more advertisments from Gourmet Magazine, focusing on luxury cars.
It’s my dirty girl-sekrit (one of many) that the contours, resonance, speed, and verve of a car just turns me the fuck on. I watch Top Gear by myself for “personal reasons”. So when I came across these beautiful spreads, my body temperature definitely rose a few degrees.
They’re no Lamborghini or Ferrari or Koenigsegg, but these early-80s vehicles are hot in a way that we don’t see much anymore. They’ve got character. They’re not all jellybeans and spacecapsules. They’re not afraid to have hardlines or artdeco curves. They’re artful.
And just look at the different tactics in the marketing itself. So much text! We hardly ever see anything like this anymore because our collective attention span as consumers is so short and our expectations so high. This much copy wouldn’t survive today’s campaigns. [[If you can find any examples, please, link me up!]]
Do you think that modern vehicles have lost some of their character? What do you think about old versus new car ads? Could we go back to loads of blackandwhite text space?
I’ve been collecting magazines and cutting them up for years now; I think it started when I was bored during an Ally McBeal episode back in the day. Ever since then, the main thrust of my artistic endevours has always been collage. I love flipping through glossy pictures, breathing in the perfume of the slick pages, the sound of shearing paper from the binding, the elaborate layouts in each volume. Tearing apart anything from Cosmo to Martha Stewart to Food & Drink to Guitar Weekly is my purest form of Zen.
I’ve long been a fan of Nubby’s Typofiles series and when the lovely Amber over at Code for Something started up her Phraseology series, I was reminded of my own love for a beautiful layout and a well-turned phrase. Inspired, I ran straight for my box-o-clippings to see what I’d saved. A treasure trove! It looks like I tend to pull a lot of advertisements without even realizing.
So what I’d like to do is throw my own series into the fray. Sporadically, I’ll share something that I’ve found in magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, whathaveyou that blows my mind, fills me with glee, and/or just speaks to me somehow. It could be brand spankin’ new, it could be from the 50s. You just never know!
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Welcome to In Print!
At a recent library book sale, I found bundles and bundles of Gourmet Magazine from the 80s and was giddy when I discovered that it was filled with one- and two-page ads for luxury cars, exotic vacations, high-class booze, and, most titilating of all – cigarettes. Now, I’m from the generation that’s straddling the gap between seeing Joe Camel during cartoon commericals and “you can’t advertise that anywhere”. Finding these ads, complete with the straightforward, no-nonsense copy of the pre-PC era, made me all giggly. [I know, I'm a dork.]
So, without further ado (there’s been far too much of that already), these are a few quality selections from Gourmet, 1982.
Doesn’t that just blow you away?! Remember when this was legal? Billboards, print, TV? Granted, it was a bit like this:
But these are relics from time long gone now. I won’t get on my high horse about smoking or anything like that; it’s a personal decision and everyone is more than welcome to make their own choices. Just wanted to share the wonderous memories of advertisment and show you a little of a style that’s seemingly past its time.
Stay tuned for In Print #2! Coming to an unannounced theatre near you!
What ads do you remember fondly (or not-so-fondly)? Do you think we’ll ban any other products from being sold this way?
Images courtesy of 
