friday flashback: 1958 Kodak industrial

No one knows the exact origin of this marvelous 1958 documentary "How Film is Made." According to Dutch photographer Marco Boeringa who helped bring it into this century, it may have been an instructional for new Kodak employees and was probably used as a promotional to the general public as well. (Perhaps Don Draper viewed it in preparation for that Kodak pitch.) Unfortunately, the English soundtrack on the original 16mm was lost when it was dubbed in Dutch, probably in the early 60s. But if this hadn't happened, we'd have missed amusing subtitles such as "An invisible but extremely important characteristic of your film is it's purity and cleanliness." 




found on Twitter via @polaroidgirl and @holgajen

international checkout queens, 1965

Starring in vintage industrial from The Super Market Institute in conjunction with that famous producer of blockbusters-- Reader's Digest! Featuring push button cash registers! Giant Hair! Clerks who speak English! Bag boys in ties!  And debut of artist making comeback at a Whole Foods near you: The Bamboo-Handled Plaid Shopping Bag.



as seen on Malls of America

february 7, 4706

It's Chinese New Year today, Happy Year of the Rat, the most industrious sign in the Chinese zodiac. In tribute, here's an inexplicably Chinese-themed industrial video, circa. 1946. It's a sales film for Fairbanks Studios, a Hollywood house famous for creating hilariously stagy and overdesigned post-war corporate videos. The cast of this one includes a copywriter "whose paycheck isn't very big because his copy has to be toned down before it reaches the printed page" and a film starlet demonstrating time-saving advances for the kitchen like (too bad this didn't catch on) a table that slides handily out of the wall, pre-set with dishes and silverware.

For more industrial-strength goodness, go Internet Archive where you can download Once Upon a Honeymoon, a musical made in 1956 to promote color telephones as a decorator accessory and Brink of Disaster which shows how 1960s activism threatens American moral, religious and ethical principles.

And don't forget to stop by Why Advertising Sucks, where Joker is passing out fortune cookies.