You feel good all over when you call long distance

[nosyparker.livejournal.com]

Two related Bell Telephone ads from 1961 and 1962 under the cut.







Something about these ads just seems...off to me.

Maybe it's the fact that a baby is wearing a pearl necklace, or the strange look of dismay on the teddy bear's face in both ads, the wizened-grandma face on the baby in the second ad, or (and maybe this is just because I was born in a less-innocent era) the fact that the baby's pose in the first picture is eerily similar to one I grew up seeing in Victoria's Secret catalogs. I don't know. It's all a bit weird to me.

Comments

[dominoep.livejournal.com]

The Teddy Bear looks worried, or sad... Like it's being held against it's will...

[skonen-blades.livejournal.com]

Strange. I don't find them off at all. I think they're charming and I love the illustrations. The necklace is a little odd, I'll give you that, but I just assume she was playing dress-up or something.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

This has kind of a Chuck Jones look to it. It's the lashes, the mouth, and the angular hair.

[brree.livejournal.com]

I think she kidnapped that teddy bear and he's silently crying out for help.

[albear.livejournal.com]

Oooooh! Long distance.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

The same idea, with a macabre spin:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/hellocentral.htm

“Hello Central! Give Me No Man's Land was published in New York in 1918. The song recounts the story of a child who attempts to use the telephone (then in recent use) in to order to call his father in No Man's Land; except that his father had been killed in fighting on the Western Front…”

[7ofclubs.livejournal.com]

The kid on top looks like she is letting out one HELLUVA fart, as is the dog, but only the dog is contrite about it.