Friday, May 18, 2007

Selling Jack

I recently inherited a new PC at work- one that runs on an 'operating system' known as 'electricity' . The old one used a system of springs, gears and wires and was 'booted-up' by turning a hand-crank for several tedious minutes each morning. This is how automobiles were started back in my childhood years, but shouldn't something as futuristic as a computer have an internal, electronic 'ignition' mechanism?
Like a button you could press or something?

Here is how a car was started back in my day, except instead of a smiling maiden doing the cranking, it would be me; standing barefoot in cold, ankle-deep mud:



Look at the date: Sept. 1911. By 1911 , advertisers were already using sex to sell cars - a technique apparently discovered before the invention of the automobile battery and 'hot-wiring'.
There is nothing accidental in the erotic composition of this picture, but please don't make me explain it.
I'm already distracted enough.

Check out what Crank Babe is wearing- in 1911 America had some really bizarre standards of dress for women- a repressive puritanical desire to cover everything.
Not unlike current Islamic standards, really:



Hmm...a little ankle , but no sash to emphasize the waist and I like the white gloves on the American lass better...
I have a crush on the model from that ad. I wonder what she's doing today?
Here she is in another ad.
This 1911 advertisement starts off by insulting the reader:

"Are You Lazy ?" it screams at them in the text.


If that ad were produced today , it wouldn't ask that question. It wouldn't have to.

Today, we are all lazy and we all know it, so why should we waste what little energy we have answering rhetorical questions?

Today the text would promise to help you lose weight or to overcome depression.
It would sell.


Again, there's nothing accidental in this picture.

6 comments:

Faerie said...

LOLing!!!

Nothing in life is coincidence is it?

yellowdoggranny said...

ah, a little hand job to get you started in the am...
does any one remember when the dimmer switch was a button on the floor board?...and there was a button on the dash board to start the motor?....the good ole days..

bonjourtristesse said...

LMAO!!!!!!! Auto-Jack! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAA. HA!!! That's one "Happy Jack"!

You know I still can't believe women have to wear the Hijab in Islamic nations...I recently read a book called "Princess" written by a member of the Saudi Royal Family and it was perhaps one of the most horrifying books I have read...fascinating but disturbing.

The pics remind me of the Coca cola gals on tea trays my grammy used to have...

talk soon, A.

E.

Sling said...

....I need a cigarrette..

meli said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AngelConradie said...

and just look at that smile...
'sfunny, i wore one of my pashminas over my head just like that today (its winter- and there's a bitch of a cold front passing us by).
oh- and i refuse to believe you are that old!