It's Fun to Phone: Bell ad from 1958

Old telcoms ads like this 1958 Bell Telephone masterpiece are a reminder that those over-the-top caricatures of ads in classic MAD Magazines were, in fact, not caricatures at all, but lightly tweaked and largely faithful representation of the aesthetic of the day.

Bell Telephone, 1958

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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PMcGorrill

Huh, I wonder how future satire outfits will make fun of advertising that strives for “authenticity.”
Gyrofrog

Speaking of telephone dials, y’all are a smart bunch and I bet at least one of you knows what I’m talking about:

We still refer to “dialing” the phone even though most telephones haven’t used dials in years. (Also “dial tone,” “dial-up”)

What is this kind of word called? (e.g. “dial” in a largely dial-free context) I’m not thinking of “anachronism.” I did see the term for it once, now I can’t find it and I’ve been thinking about it since then.

Other examples:
The “shift” key on a computer keyboard doesn’t shift anything. Even on some typewriters it didn’t really shift anything. On a related note, “uppercase” and “lowercase” no longer involve cases but we still use those words.

“Cc:” generally no longer involves the use of carbon paper.
- meanruse
  
  Are you thinking of a dead metaphor?
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_metaphor
  - Gyrofrog
    
    I’m not sure, I don’t think that article is very clear.
Erin W

The dolly with a dial on its dress is interesting, too. If that child’s parents had a telephone growing up, it was likely the old crank-style on a party line. Such a doll would have made no sense. Toy versions of adult tools are nothing new, but the generational leaps that exist now fascinate me.
Holmes!

This ad should feel especially familiar to Mad readers, since it looks like the work of longtime madman Jack Rickard.
Binary Slim

I’m gonna guess that the artist is Pete Hawley. Also did some great work in late 50s ads for Jantzen.
- knoxblox
  
  Yes, it’s Pete Hawley. Mark might remember he did a post back in December of 2009 on Pete’s work:
  
  http://boingboing.net/2009/12/16/saving-pete-hawleys.html
Anonymous

This is late 1050′s, early 1960′s. She was known as Betsy Bell. I think there were dolls like the little telephone girl, t00.
Kosmoid

This is so funny that at one time Ma Bell had to remind people to use their phone. It also points up the fact that no company ever needed to promote the use of cell phones. Now you can’t go to a movie theater or a restaurant where some nudnick has to pull out the cell.

Pleeze, keep your “unexpected sparkle” in your pants.

Also, did any sci-fi writer ever predict the ubiquitous use of cell phones?
- Anonymous
  
  Ray Bradbury. Anybody before him?
  - Kosmoid
    
    What story?
- Rich Keller
  
  The protagonist in When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger had a cell-like phone but that was published in 1986, so I don’t know if that counts. Bradbury probably has something similar. He got the Walkman and the iPod dead-on with the seashells in Farenheit 451.
- Michael Smith
  
  Also, did any sci-fi writer ever predict the ubiquitous use of cell phones?
  
  In Robert Heinlein’s novel “Space Cadet” from about 1950, the hero/protagonist takes a call on his pocket phone from his dad. He asks his dad to call me back later because he is in a crowd and he doesn’t want to share his conversation with a bunch of people. So Heinlein was wrong. Most people today would have kept right on talking. At one point the character mentions that he has to give up his phone because the infrastructure isn’t available where he is travelling to. I think this may have appeared in “Have Spacesuit will Travel” as well.
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Pleeze, keep your “unexpected sparkle” in your pants.
  
  Great sentence.
- Anonymous
  
  Also, did any sci-fi writer ever predict the ubiquitous use of cell phones?
  
  Doesn’t anyone here remember GET SMART? The laugh track would always chuckle when he removed his shoe to make a call. Partly because it was a shoe, and partly because it was a wireless handheld device.
- Chris Tucker
  
  Heinlein.
  
  Pocket phones abound in his works, including his juveniles.
Jonathan

~Fun bubbles both ways~
Teller

Of course she’s happy: the landline is radiation-free!
Holmes!

Ach! Totally Hawley, of course!

The ad is interesting, in that it heralds the advent of the meaningless, intrusive, time-wasting chatter which we enjoy–hrm–today. Those of us who don’t find surprise “pokes in the ribs” amusing are grateful to have made it to the era of time-shifted communications, where we don’t have to drop everything we’re doing to stay connected.
Anonymous

The reference to Inger Nilsson is appropro; to me, the little girl in the ad does have a rather Scandinavian look about her, particularly a northern Scandinavian look. I was thinking she looks Icelandic, or maybe like one of her parents is from Greenland.

She’s somewhat of a caricature either way, but I still think the ad is kinda cute. She’s nothing if not happy, and happiness is always good to see. I get sick of modern ads with mock-serious faces or half-hearted smiles. A little bordering-on-madness joy is nice to see now and then.
smurfswacker

That toy is based on an old Raggedy Ann phone I used to see in toy shops (changed just enough to avoid lawsuits, I presume).

Even for the time, this sort of caricature was unusual in realistically-painted illustrations. More often they used the more conservative idealized style used for the smaller heads here. It always seemed like kids were fair game for this sort of exaggeration, especially girls. Didn’t see many adults caricatured this way; not in ads, anyhow.

“Holmes” is right: there were definite advantages to the pre-cell, pre-answering machine phone age. For one thing you never knew if you missed a call–you wasted no energy fretting about the fact and 99% of the time (just like today) it was an irrelevant poke in the ribs anyway.
Dr Wadd

I take it she’s calling the emergency services after getting hit with a dose of Joker gas.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I fucking love cocaine!
Editz

Saw the girl and instantly thought of this:

http://burrellosubmarine.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/brazil_babyface.jpg
Anonymous

One reason for the verisimilitude of many of the old Mad advertising parodies is that they were frequently done by commercial artists who also did actual ads.
toothandclaw

And thus began young Harley Quinn’s obsession with clowns…
Plenihimun

Not that I’m a huge fan, but the way Todd McFarlane draws children is definitely influenced by this particular style. The interesting question is; was he influenced by the original adverts or the Mad parodies?
Godfree

The little girl looks like she has Williams Syndrome. It can make people look somewhat elfin.
Rich Keller

Doesn’t she look like Inger Nilsson, AKA Pippi Longstocking?

I get a big kick out of how the idea of what is cute has changed over the decades. To paraphrase Oglaf, compare what was cute 50 years ago to what we have now and extrapolate that into the future… What’s it going to be, just a huge pair of eyes?