As many of our readers probably know, I am a big fan of vintage advertising. The colors, the design, the marketing-speak, the shiny happy people…. This ad is from 1970 and features the “complete bedside entertainment center”, elegantly named the Longines Symphonette FM/AM Digital Clock Lamp-Radio. While we chuckle at this technological relic, it was no doubt one seriously hot radio/clock/lamp amalgamation in its heyday. One thing I get motivated to do when looking (& laughing) at old technology is to imagine the future and where technological evolution (or, really, revolution) will take us. Will we look back, 40 years hence, and laugh at the Ipad or will it be viewed more as an artifact of our material culture? My vote is for “artifact”, but that doesn’t mean I won’t laugh at the ads.
Hey, I had one of those things when I was a kid!
Hush your mouth, Bruce! We are positively green with envy!! Stylish good looks and useful too? We look for those qualities in so many things….