Tuesday, July 21, 2009

blast from the past (don't forget your luggage)


My husband brought in the paper this morning and I had a disorienting moment when I saw the front page laid out on the table. All the news fit to print on 7/21/69. First 3 pages were reprinted and inserted into subscriber copies, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.

What most interested me weren't the headlines which have been screaming from newstands for weeks. It was what was set in small type: the price of the paper (ten cents),  the poem on the front page ("Voyage to the Moon" by Archibald MacLeish) (Can you imagine a poem printed on the front page today?) and the description of the moon from Buzz Aldrin, who took that giant step right after Armstrong: "Magnificent desolation." 

I appreciated that interruptive ad content was kept to a minimum, limited mostly to a portrait of former spaceriders by Annie Liebowitz, with a link to a rather engaging website in which the legends are interviewed and conversation is encouraged. Smart marketing, Ogilvy.
And if the creative team over there is looking to extend, the journeys of Hemingway might be a good fit. It's just come out that he found his famous lost notebooks in a stored trunk he'd forgotten about, a trunk that Louis Vuitton custom made for him in the 1920s.






15 comments:

Ashley Carr said...

Have really been enjoying your blog entries--so well written (well, of course). Unfortunately, I couldn't get the link to work for the "engaging website" you mentioned. At any rate, so glad I discovered your excellent blog through Twitter this week. It's a joy to read!

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Thanks much, Ashley. For the read and kind words. And for heads up about the lame link, I'll fix in the post.

High Power Rocketry said...

: )

Anonymous said...

It does jerk your brain a little. "Man arrested for driving car 40 miles per hour." Does too.

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Teenie said...

Lovely post, Ms. Broad! I remember looking back through old papers--I'm talking the 30s and 40s--and being mesmerized by how intelligent and poetic it all sounded.

We were at a restaurant in Little India here the other week, and picked up a community paper. The English articles were written in such lovely, rich language--almost like a long-lost version of English. It was beautiful to read.

Italo said...

Another nice post, thanks :)

Unknown said...

Wish I'd picked up the NYT that day.
I love reading old papers for the ads...

grodrigues said...

Very nice!
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halı yıkama said...

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jascef422 said...

You have very well written blogs,keep up the work

Mak said...

Sweet, a throwback newspaper!

That's an interesting point you raise, about the poetry on the frontpage. Long live Bukowski!

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Teenie--I know what you mean about lost versions of English being published abroad. Perhaps our newspapers wouldn't be in such trouble if we outsourced content to Mumbai ;)

@R2K @Abe lincoln @SP @grodrigues @halı yıkama @jascef422 Thanks!

@Makolyte Yes, viva Bukowski! And Merwyn! And Ashberry! And... :)

California Girl said...

I really like the Hemingway story by Hotchner. It would be very cool, the way the Ritz Hotel campaign was, referencing many of the old and current "glamour queens" who stay(ed) there, e.g. Ava, Marlena, etc.

I have seen the ongoing Vuitton campaign in Vanity Fair so I checked out the video but it's tooo long for my attention span.

Kimberlee said...

What do you think of those people who say man never landed on the moon?

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

@California Girl I agree the Vuitton video needs editing. Good concept, though.

@Kimberlee Funny, the day I posted this my doorman tried to engage me in a long conversation about how the moon landing never happened, was a media conspiracy. I grant that it's possible. But I think that by now any Moongate cover would have been broken.