Comments on: Colorful Dairy Queen ad, 1960

By: gwailo_joe

gwailo_joe — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well, the dog IS looking up that ladies’ skirt. . .but I don’t know if that counts as pornography.

By: monitorhead

monitorhead — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reminds me of the DQ a couple of blocks from where i grew up, which is still there today;
1st Avenue NE, Cedar Rapids, IA:

http://www.cedarrapidscorvetteclub.com/images/Dairy%20Queen.jpg

By: jfrancis

jfrancis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“There’s something almost pornographic about the color palette and line-weights in this 1960 ad for Dairy Queen.”

OMG I was thinking the exact same thing! Especially about the line weights.

By: jfrancis

jfrancis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Actually these line wights are even more scandalous

http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2009/11/inked_art_and_d.html

By: millie fink

millie fink — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

At first I read the header of this post as ironic. I see white people–lots of them.

By: waltbosz

waltbosz — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumn_love/2671926573/

There is a place in New Castle, DE called Dairy Palace that used to be a Dairy Queen. It still has the old style DQ building.

By: kaijan

kaijan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ah, the 1950s. They were obsessed with bright colors in their advertisements. Even color photos from that period were overly saturated, making them look almost fake. I guess it must have been overcompensation for all B&W movies and B&W TV.

By: dalesd

dalesd — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I must admit, when I see a painting like this, I get emotionally erect.

http://youtu.be/jh23gVksliQ

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Or maybe it’s just that the treatment of the iconic Dairy Queen cone-with-swirl here looks like a sex toy.

By: adamnvillani

adamnvillani — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have a pal who’s a vegan and I recommended he open a “Non-Dairy Queen.”

By: jimh

jimh — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Is it the erect wiener dog that pushes it over the edge?

By: Vanwall

Vanwall — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think the colors were mandated by Natalie Kalmus.

By: jxc

jxc — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I swear, if I replace the words “Dairy Queen” with “Ð”ÐµÐ¹Ñ€Ð¸ ÐšÐ²Ð¸Ð½”, it’ll look to me like a Soviet propaganda poster.

Sometimes, I think of “there and now” instead of “there and ‘here’, then”.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It sounds ridiculous, but this ad reminds me of actual family trips to DQ in the 70′s (I lived in east end Montreal – they were few and far between) In my version of the events, it’s evening and those fluorescent tubes are bug repellant yellow with lots of screening everywhere. Anyone? Station wagons, hot pants, odd shaped cups for the sundaes and lots and lots of bugs.

By: Ugly Canuck

Ugly Canuck — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t forget that most photos in books and magazines and in the newspapers were also B&W at that time.

As a result of all that B&W, colour had a “zing” to it that people no longer “get”, but which I can remember.

And it seemed the photographers and other artists really paid attention to specifically how they used colour, how they incorporated it into their designs – it was treated as something special by the creators of that time, too, which does not always happen nowadays.

Yeah, colour is no longer treated or thought of, now, as the special thing it was back then. But it seems to me that I can still look at it as such, sometimes.

PS – Thinking of this it now occurs to me that my favorite Blu-ray movies are the B&W ones available, as the hi-res really brings out all B&W’s glory. Seriously – check out a well-transferred blu-ray of a good B&W movie on a big TV – you’d see.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I know Photographs and Photographers are mentioned above, but does anyone think this is based on an actual photograph? It’s the eyes staring right at me, I think 6 pair, that seem more like a photograph, especially the little girl standing on the tailgate with her shake raised over her head, like a salute.

Teeth scared me a lot back then, all fake and white, and now my nightmare has come true, especially newscasters teeth.

By: Ugly Canuck

Ugly Canuck — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Those must be short-shorts:

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

…as the popular re-discovery of that old French-Canadian invention, the mini-skirt, took place only later in the mid-1960s.

I remember….oooh, I remember.

By: jdixon

jdixon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@jfrancis: Henceforth I defer to your judgment on line-weight lewdity!

By: jimh

jimh — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Of course, for ACTUALLY pornographic line weights and colors, you can’t beat Paul Krassner and Wally Wood (I am a proud owner of this print):
http://www.paulkrassner.com/

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What a broad pair of tags: “food, not food.”

By: MarkM

MarkM — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

For a “colorful” ad, I see very few people of color …

By: JayR

JayR — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think the porn comes in later. The guy in the foreground, alone with his banana. The creepy dude in the blue V-neck putting the moves on his girl. The kid happily licking the angled cone gripped in his fist. The green-shirted man’s hand touching the little redhead’s as he passes her a treat.

This might as well be called “Two Girls, One Cone.” It’s practically obscene.

By: IamInnocent

IamInnocent — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Where have those healthy, thin people go ?

By: querent

querent — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I wanna see Crow, Joel, and Servo in the corner.

Also: mini-skirts. Makes a man crazy.

By: knoxblox

knoxblox — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oh yeah, lick my StarKiss baby…

By: victorvodka

victorvodka — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

it looks like a nice place where you could send your pretty white daughter and not have to worry about her becoming romantically smitten by a strapping young african american gentleman.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Top marks to facetedjewel for the analysis!

By: HatOfEdshu

HatOfEdshu — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I do declare, I’ve got the vapors!

By: MacBookHeir

MacBookHeir — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Those advertising artists of the 1960s sure drew better than advertising artists of today!

By: Editz

Editz — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nostalgia – it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, “nostalgia” literally means “the pain from an old wound.” It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.