Saturday, September 13, 2014

Cementimental Journey

In a recent post about Joan Rivers, I digressed just a bit to harp on celebrity endorsements, the idea that we should all run out and buy a product simply because a famous person is paid X amount of dollars to tell us we should buy a product. Well, what follows may very well be the most ridiculous celebrity endorsement of all time: 





Now, I happen to think Doris Day is a very talented individual whose girl-next-door image is occasionally and unfairly held against her in these porn-star-with-silicone-breasts-online times. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should really get past With Six You Get Eggroll already and give her a Lifetime Achievement Oscar before she dies. Day was a fine comic actress and a very good singer, though her lushly orchestrated songs of the 1940s and '50s might sound a bit jarring when contrasted to the more lustily synthesized dance tracks of today. Still, if Lady Gaga can put out an album with Tony Bennett, can't Day maybe do a duet with Usher? Que se-owowowo se-owowowo.

OK, I've established to my satisfaction if not necessarily yours that Day is talented, but does that talent really extend to highway construction? When I first saw the above ad and then blew it up as large as possible to read the small print, I actually wondered if it wasn't a Mad magazine parody or something by Bruce McCall. But, no, as far as I can tell, it's a real ad that appeared in the August 1949 issue of Asphalt and Macadam Monthly. Judging by that magazine's title, it's apparently possible to come up with something novel to say about asphalt and macadam 12 times a year. I suppose it's also possible that state and municipalities all over the country purchased International Harvester Series 56 Diesel Road Rollers for their road crews 65 years ago based solely on Doris Day's say-so.

Still, it's not a good idea to a pave a highway in the hot sun. I hear it can give you freckles.

10 comments:

  1. I first though that was a toy or set design. Because it looks so "designed" but if that is what it looks like ...I want one in my yard right now !
    Did I say right now !
    I meant RIGHT NOW !

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. It might flatten the grass, parsnip.

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    2. Who cares about the grass, it is so fabulous !

      cheers

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  2. Doris Day was my favorite actress as a child. I had a scrapbook full of her pictures and a 45 of Que Sera Sera, which I sang along to. I also possess a stack of ripped-out magazines pages, inherited from my Dad, which are ads very much like this one. They are yellowed and edge-worn, but I love them and plan to frame them and display them in my bathroom. I believe they came from a military publication called "Stars and Stripes." I guess I'm like my dad. He saved them from the 1940s until his death in 1997, and I've saved them 'til now.

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    Replies
    1. Doris Day appeared in Stars and Stripes, Kass? Was she driving a tank?

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    2. That would have been great. Now that I've googled it, I realize the ads were probably from Ladies Home Journal, not the Stars and Stripes. I do remember a Loretta Young ad for Lux soap and a lot of cigarette ads with movies stars claiming smoking improved their health along with their image....I'm still unpacking from my recent move so I don't have them to refer to, but perhaps when I find them, I'll post them on my blog.

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    3. I miss your blog, Kass, so I'll be waiting.

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    4. That will be a super fun blog Kass !
      cheers,

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    5. Omg! Doris Day is even funnier than I thought.

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    6. Before that ad she was just another pretty face, Patricia.

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