Great Britain: Proud Nation of Photographic Perverts! [Archive]

Jocko

12-24-2006, 07:07

I was going to post some Christmassy old camera ads, so we could all get weepy over the dear dead days of Ilford HP-3 and 10 ASA Kodachrome..... But....

There is a problem. There are no really sophisticated Xmas ads.

We want to see a young Hugh Hefner, stylishly curled in an Eames recliner, deeply absorbed in his new M3, oblivious to the Mondrians and starlets that fill his space-age penthouse..... Instead we find gap-toothed moppets deliriously unwrapping the Argus, Mom and Pop sweetly exchanging a "kids just say the cutest things" look.

Well, It may not be too Christmassy, but I suggest that the attached ad is the campest and perhaps most "adult" in camera history. From an age before PC, from an era when Britons stood firm, proud and swinging - a small gem of double meaning to raise a yule-tide smile....

Merry Xmas, Ian

Ash

12-24-2006, 07:12

I surprised at the amount of skin on that advert!

Jocko

12-24-2006, 07:17

I surprised at the amount of skin on that advert!

Don't be frightened Laddie... We're all "mature photographers" here! :D

Cheers. Ian

Ossifan

12-24-2006, 07:19

The sentiment is perfect - and I love the ad. Thank you! One slight factoid - it's properly called the Eames Lounch Chair and Ottoman (it isn't a recliner in the sense of a "barca-lounger" (sp?)).

Merry Christmas!
Alex

jan normandale

12-24-2006, 07:20

Jocko.. perverts? Looking at how you've titled this thread I can tell you're writing headlines for the tabloids now ... (joke/humour)?

I love how they played off the 1950's US version of the "sand kicking bully" on the beaches. They have a great sense of tongue in cheek humour , more so than we see today. "Shoot faster, upload faster, print faster...!"
"Photography ? Whats that? We're in the imaging business son"

Great fun! Thanks for sharing. I'm smiling now. Seasons best to you and all the rest of the RFF'rs "on the right side of the pond"

cheers, Jan

Screwy

12-24-2006, 07:29

Oh dear , I feel I might just have to mothball my Moskva,s now looking at the chap on the left :( anyone know where to get a Miranda ?

:D :D

I love the old adverts , what they lack in sophistication they more than make up for with in your face consumerism :D

Paul

ClaremontPhoto

12-24-2006, 07:31

Isn't there a place that sells Leicas on eBay illustrated with scantily-dressed women with Leica tattoos?

BJ Bignell

12-24-2006, 07:32

I can't believe that they wanted 4.12. and 6 just for the leather case... What a rip-off!

;)

Great ad, though. It's obvious that the ad pokes a bit of fun at itself, too, with the dapper chap dressed in trunks, flippers, and a bowler hat.

lynn

12-24-2006, 07:33

Thanks, J. :)

I'm stuck at work till quarter past midnight, and this giggle did me good...

Merry Christmas, all!

Jocko

12-24-2006, 07:49

Jocko.. perverts? Looking at how you've titled this thread I can tell you're writing headlines for the tabloids now ...

Ah Dear Jan, in the purity of your northern forests I fear you are blissfully unaware of the horrible place of frogman's flippers in the "Carry On" school of British humour!

Curiously, I think the girl may be "Vicky Kennedy", later the comedy actress Margaret Nolan, who would have been known to AP readers as the subject of many of the photo-sets offered on the murkier back pages....

Oooer missis!

Cheers, Ian :)

lushd

12-24-2006, 08:07

Jocko - matron will be coming in a minute to see what's developing!

Socke

12-24-2006, 08:08

Wait until ManGo sees that they claimed it had a rangefinder :)

DMG

12-24-2006, 08:12

is that Charles Hawtrey in that ad (Carry On films) on the left? No sex please we're British!

Jocko

12-24-2006, 08:23

is that Charles Hawtrey in that ad (Carry On films) on the left? No sex please we're British!

He's certainly made up to look like the wonderful Hawtrey - and I can't help thinking that the dapper gent might be a reference to Steed of the Avengers!

For readers not sodden with British popular culture, here's a picture of the immortal Charlie - here with Valerie Leon, whose Christmastime adverts for Hai Karate aftershave were the highlight of the season for those of us aged 12 :)

Cheers, Ian

dreilly

12-24-2006, 08:24

Up until very recently there was another hobby that was filled with ads of ladies in fondling positions...astronomy. NOthing like a model with her arms wrapped around a 10" relfector. Yum! There's still one company that uses this slick marketing technique, and they sell giant binoculars. I kid you all not. Check out sky and telescope.

lushd

12-24-2006, 08:48

He's certainly made up to look like the wonderful Hawtrey - and I can't help thinking that the dapper gent might be a reference to Steed of the Avengers!

For readers not sodden with British popular culture, here's a picture of the immortal Charlie - here with Valerie Leon, whose Christmastime adverts for Hai Karate aftershave were the highlight of the season for those of us aged 12 :)

Cheers, Ian

Just look what she does to his King and his Bishop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbLM0piFIc8

Jocko

12-24-2006, 10:06

Oh Donald! We have been cruelly deceived! That lady... Is Not Valerie!

Oh, such mendacity, and at Christmas too !:(

lushd

12-24-2006, 10:13

Well, in East of England RF circles (i.e. me and Jocko), my preferences for the likes of Emma Peel and said Valerie are well known. I too was crushed.

But why did the guy attack the pot plant?

Jocko

12-24-2006, 10:20

Because he is a responsible citizen! One whiff of the Devil's baccy turns you into a Long-haired Communist like Sonny Bono!

Cheers, Ian

IGMeanwell

12-24-2006, 10:49

That is one of the funniest ads I have seen in a long time ... that made my day

amateriat

12-24-2006, 11:32

Isn't there a place that sells Leicas on eBay illustrated with scantily-dressed women with Leica tattoos? No, you must've stumbled on Erwin Puts' page of his own work...:p

Ian: this is priceless, with double-entendres galore (they probably had their derby'd chap hold his Miranda where he did and not lower, lest the punchline be a bit too obvious). Just the tonic for my Christmas Eve afternoon...not that I'm down or anything, this just adds a bit more "zing".

Merry and Happy!

- Barrett

lushd

12-24-2006, 11:52

Oh Donald! We have been cruelly deceived! That lady... Is Not Valerie!

Oh, such mendacity, and at Christmas too !:(

To make it up to us (notice she is draping over possibly the finest car ever built, the AUstin 1300 GT).

amateriat

12-24-2006, 12:10

I think I sense a hilarious second thread brewing: Favorite Print Ads for Cameras. I've got a stack of "Modern" and "Popular" issues from the 60s and 70s, so I'm certainly game for this...

- Barrett

Jocko

12-24-2006, 12:21

Donald - so much style in such little space!

Barrett - that would be a thread to relish! I've long wished to post a jaw-dropping few paragraphs on how to find cheap models from the very Amateur Photographer that featured the Miranda ad - unfortunately they would doubtless offend, even - perhaps especially - at Christmas! But ads.... Lets do it!:)

All the best, Ian

IGMeanwell

12-24-2006, 12:40

[QUOTE=amateriat]I think I sense a hilarious second thread brewing: Favorite Print Ads for Cameras. I've got a stack of "Modern" and "Popular" issues from the 60s and 70s, so I'm certainly game for this...

Sounds good to me!!!

lushd

12-24-2006, 12:46

Jocko

12-24-2006, 12:57

Donald - WOW!

Here's another "impossible today" Christmas ad. Not quite as bad as one for the Bond Minicar ("Sir - A Car Even Your Wife Could Drive"), but Nothing was as bad as a Bond Minicar!

Cheers, Ian

jlw

12-24-2006, 13:03

Miranda used to be famous in the USA as well for its "sex sells" approach to camera advertising.

Anybody besides me think the Miranda-using photographer in the ad has been deliberately cast to look like an early James Bond? Yes, I do remember seeing Bond (in his Sean Connery incarnation) wearing a bowler hat in one of the older films.

Jocko

12-24-2006, 13:40

Anybody besides me think the Miranda-using photographer in the ad has been deliberately cast to look like an early James Bond? Yes, I do remember seeing Bond (in his Sean Connery incarnation) wearing a bowler hat in one of the older films.

Indeed he did - and looked very unexpected! My bet is that the ad refers to Patrick Macnee as John Steed in the Avengers, which was just becoming an enormous hit, with similar tongue in cheek glamour and risque humour... I'd love to see some of those American ads...!

Cheers, Ian