Allee Willis Blog » Advertising/ Promotion

10Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1960’s Ponds Cold Cream

10Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1960’s Ponds Cold Cream

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Seeing as the Lustrous Lipstick display was so popular yesterday I moved my vintage Ponds face cream up in KOTD status to grace the shelves at The Allee Willis Museum Of Kitsch today. Along with Jergens, Ponds ruled the middle class moisturizer market in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. Growing up, I don’t ever recall going into a friend’s house whose mom didn’t have a jar of this stashed next to the cotton balls.

Made by Chesebrough-Pond’s Inc., NY,NY this is the 10.4 oz. economy jar, the product’s most popular size. Pond’s famous Seven Day Beauty Plan included slathering this stuff on twice nightly for “smoother, lovlier” skin.

I remember stocking up on Ponds for college but then being too embarrassed to abide by the Pond’s famous Seven Day Beauty Plan for fear of having to walk my dorm around looking like this woman:

Here’s a 1960’s Ponds ad:

This commercial wasn’t for Ponds but for a competing more boutique line of facial cosmetics in the 1950s. It’s astounding to watch because of one of its secret ingredients, radioactivity!

08Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Liverwurst With Coke Sign

08Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Liverwurst With Coke Sign

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I can’t think of anything Coke would go better with than a nice slab of liverwurst! Not sure what inspired anyone at the company to pick this meal combo to advertise the drink but I’m awfully glad they did because this 8″ x 24″ Litho cardboard sign has hung happily in my kitchen for almost 20 years. I’ve never done it the honor of munching down liverwurst when I pop the cap on a Coke but the sign inspired me enough that my alter ego, Bubbles the artist, painted a beautiful still life of the meal in 1999…

…and soon after also made this beautiful and appetizing dinner plate.

Both for sale. Actual liverwurst accompaniment is extra.

01Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vanessa Williams Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Box

01Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vanessa Williams Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Box

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When Vanessa Williams snagged the Miss America crown in 1984 one of her first honors was to grace this box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. But the box was banished as quickly as her title when sexy photos emerged. Ironic when the text includes lines like “It is with this intent that Kellogg Company provides this limited edition Commemorative Package as a lasting reminder that…we must continue to promote the American dream and encourage all Americans to freely pursue life, liberty, and happiness.”. vaness-a-williams-cornflakes-box_2353

Very few of the boxes survived as the inventory that was left in Battle Creek, Michigan where the flakes were made was destroyed in the midst of the scandal. I was friendly with Vanessa at the time and so felt she didn’t deserve to lose the title let alone the cereal box. But she certainly pursued life, liberty and happiness and lost no time crying over spilt cornflakes.

17Jan 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1970’s Sanka Ashtray

17Jan 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1970’s Sanka Ashtray

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Along with Postum, Sanka is the brew that revolutionized the coffee world and kicked off the decaf trend. It was also the proud sponsor of quintessential 50’s TV shows like “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show”. In those days, cigarettes were almost de rigueur with anything smelling like coffee, hence the promotional ashtray to top off the perfect cup.

Because the color orange was so synonymous with Sanka, coffee pots in restaurants with orange handles, universally signifying they contain the unleaded version of the brew, also have Sanka to thank for their instant recognition factor.

15Jan 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Long Beach City Employees Ceramic Money Pouch Bank

15Jan 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Long Beach City Employees Ceramic Money Pouch Bank

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Very nice of the Federal Credit Union of Signal Hill, CA to give these promotional money sack banks to Long Beach city employees but the gift would have been ever more meaningful if it came with a little cash jingling inside, something I’m sure the employees needed more than this lump of clay.

I’m not sure what year this is from but it’s definitely after November, 1991 when the 310 area code went into effect in that part of the financial world. bank-Long-Beach-city-employees_2173

25Dec 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – “Season’s Best” 45 From Dinah Shore

25Dec 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – “Season’s Best” 45 From Dinah Shore

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“Seasons best” from Dinah Shore, Chevrolet and me! Dinah warbled “See the USA in your Chevrolet” throughout the Atomic Age when the auto maker sponsored The Dinah Shore Show from 1956–63. The jingle became her best known song and kept her working steady so she could afford lots of Christmas and Hanukkah presents.

Though Dinah was a nice Jewish girl there’s nary a Hanukah song in sight on this promo 45 that was handed out by GM dealers, in this case Price-Roche Motors of Petaluma, California. The disk features “Silent Night”, “Jingle Bells”, “The Coventry Carol” and “You Meet The Nicest People“.

Dinah ended all of her shows by throwing a big “MWAH!” kiss directly to camera, prompting Frank Sinatra to say “Dinah blows the best kisses.” In her tradition, and I’d like to think with Frank’s approval, I’m blowing you all a big “MWAH!” this Christmas Day!

21Dec 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – ‘I Love Lucy’ Phillip Morris Christmas Gift Cigarettes

21Dec 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – ‘I Love Lucy’ Phillip Morris Christmas Gift Cigarettes

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It says a lot about the Atomic Age that America’s pre-Kennedy First Family, the Ricardo’s, hawked cigarettes for the holidays. Now we know why Lucy’s voice was lower than James Earl Jones’ as she progressed through the years most likely puffing on her lifetime supply of Phillip Morris.

30Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Ultra Cheap Donny and Marie Microphone And Song Sheets Set

30Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Ultra Cheap Donny and Marie Microphone And Song Sheets Set

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Donny Osmond may have won Dancing With The Stars and a whole lotta money for his favorite charity but a whole lotta money was the last thing that was spent on manufacturing this toy microphone and song sheets set at the height of the Donny & Marie Show frenzy in 1976. Despite the claim on the package that you too can “CREATE YOUR OWN SONGS • MAKE YOUE OWN MUSIC” the non-working plastic mic attaches to nothing and won’t get you much farther than singing into a candle or a shoe or anything else remotely microphone shaped.

The “song sheets” are literally blank sheets of paper that you write the notes to your own song on should you have enough songwriting chops to pull one out of the blue and be blessed with the knowledge of how to notate music, the latter of which I don’t even know how to do.

To make matters worse and even lower-rent, the song sheets are stapled together at the top and the bottom and it’s next to impossible without surgical instruments to remove the staples without ripping the one-ply-thick-thinner-than-toilet-paper paper it’s printed on.

Made in Hong Kong during the heyday of the bro/sis acts’ ABC variety show by the family’s own Osbro Productions and distributed by Gordy International (how did Motown get into the act?) it also appears that Donnie got the shaft on the shaft of the microphone as Marie’s name got bumped up to all caps and Donny’s remains crushed into diminutive lower case letters.

All around, this belongs in an express elevator up to the Penthouse of Kitsch because it is sooooo totally and completely cheaply made, meant to be dumped into bargain bins at all of the dollar discount stores that were just starting to get a smelly toehold on the American merchandising scene.

02Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Lawrence Welk Musical Spoons

02Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Lawrence Welk Musical Spoons

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Lawrence Welk was always too square for me except that that’s where I could continue to get my Mickey Mouse Club fix when in 1961 Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess won a dance contest to Welk’s hit, “Calcutta” (an LW record I LOVED) and became a regular on the show two years after the mouse ears left the air. Though Bobby went from being a hip kid to an excessively corny adult as soon as he hitched to Mr. Wunnerful Wunnerful wagon, I still appreciated his move as otherwise I may have missed Lawrence Welk and his jaw droppingly cheesy production numbers that became a primer in my never ending education in Kitsch. Combine that with the fact that I never learned how to play an instrument and you end up with my excitement about these musical spoons which became one of the first instruments I “played” when I started to write songs.

Forget the spoons, the packaging on this is fantastic. With not an inch left uncovered, it boasts “Get on the beat!”, “Be a champion!”and “The international pastime – spooning!” Perhaps so, but not that kind of spooning.

Lawrence Welk was always too square for me except that that’s where I could continue to get my Mickey Mouse Club fix when, in 1961, Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess won a dance contest to Welk’s hit, “Calcutta” and became a regular on the show two years after the mouse ears left the air. Though Bobby went from being a hip kid to an excessively corny adult as soon as he hitched to Mr. Wunnerful Wunnerful’s wonderful wagon, I still appreciated his move as otherwise I may have missed Lawrence Welk and his jaw droppingly cheesy production numbers that became a primer in my neverending education in Kitsch. Combine that with the fact that I never learned how to play an instrument and you end up with my excitement about these musical spoons which became one of the first instruments I “played” when I started to write songs.

Forget the spoons, the packaging on this is fantastic. With not an inch left uncovered, it boasts “Get on the beat!”, “Be a champion!”and “The international pastime – spooning!” Perhaps so, but not that kind of spooning.

Bobby Burgess went on to become Welk’s longtime accordionist, Myron Floren’s, son-in law. Here they are doing The Chicken Dance, which, according to them, is “one of the most popular dances in America” and which, according to me, “wasn’t”.

Here’s Welk’s biggest and only Top 10 hit, “Calcutta”:

27Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1960’s Canadian Club Whiskey Pitcher

27Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1960’s Canadian Club Whiskey Pitcher

I’ve collected four of these porcelain pitchers from the late 1960s over the years. I’ve only seen this particular style with the casual, beaming Afro-endowed hostess on the front, never the matching male, so perhaps Canadian Club was making a pitch to the swingin’ middle-class lady set that things other than water and lemonade should be pouring out of their petite white pitchers.

I always liked that the blouse they chose for this hostess was so bold yet conservative, picking up enough of what they perceived as a ‘Right On/ That’s Soul, Baby!’ feeling but still looking like it could have been bought at any department store in the white suburban malls. 5-1/2″ high by 3-1/2″ high and made in the USA, at least Canadian Club’s sprang for printing the image on both sides of the pitcher. Nothing bothers me more in household accessories, especially things like glasses and pitchers where how you pick them up depends on whether you’re right or left-handed, when the image is only stamped on one side. Nothing less expressive for this the happy hostess who writes this blog then drinking out of something that is blank on the side exposed to the public. I’ve collected four of these porcelain pitchers from the late 1960s over the years. I’ve only seen this particular style with the casual, beaming Afro-endowed hostess on the front, never the matching male, so perhaps Canadian Club was making a pitch to the swingin’ middle-class lady set that things other than water and lemonade should be pouring out of their petite white pitchers.

I always liked that the blouse they chose for this hostess was so bold yet conservative, picking up enough of what they perceived as a ‘Right On/ That’s Soul, Baby!’ feeling but still looking like it could have been bought at any department store in the white suburban malls.

5-1/2″ high by 3-1/2″ wide and made in the USA, at least Canadian Club sprang for printing the image on both sides of the pitcher. Nothing bothers me more in household accessories, especially things like glasses and pitchers where how you pick them up depends on whether you’re right or left-handed, when the image is only stamped on one side. Nothing less expressive for the happy hostess who writes this blog then drinking out of something that is blank on the side exposed to the public.