2/15/11

Fleischmann's Whiskey - Big drinker.

I like this goofy ad for Fleischmann's whiskey. They're just going for the "memorable image" angle with this ad campaign. Nobody's going to look at the ad and be motivated on a rational level to try Fleischmann's brand of booze. "They make a valid point. That bottle is really big, and 90 proof will get me intoxicated very quickly. I think I'll switch to this cartoony brand of booze."
My favorite part is the woman leering at the man. She's clearly becoming smitten with this mysterious stranger carrying an enormous bottle of whiskey. "Hmm. Looks like the party is definitely happening at that fellow's house tonight. My spank bank has just been refilled!"

He looks so serious, but I know what kind of evening he'll have. He'll probably be getting out his giant glass to go with his cartoon-sized bottle. Then, once he's cartoonfully drunk, he'll be hiccuping while the wacky trumpet plays "How Dry I Am" from out of nowhere. He'll fall asleep with his tongue hanging out and those little exes on his eyes. His wife will find him on the kitchen floor and she'll hit him with a rolling pin, or possibly a frying pan. This is how cartoon drinking wrecks marriages.

Now, this was 1960, remember, and Photoshop didn't exist. So, this enormous bottle was painted on an enlargement of the photo. The workmanship is good. The thing I'm gratified to see they got right is the nice clear drop shadow the bottle is casting on his coat. Often, a photo retoucher will lack the confidence to paint a hard-edged shadow, choosing instead to make a vague fuzzy shape because they have trouble determining the exact shape of the drop shadow.
However, the man's fingers kind of look like they're being clipped off by the back edge of the bottle. The horizon of his fingers is perfectly parallel with the horizon of the bottle. While this is perfectly plausible, it does looks a little suspicious. The sad fact about art is that it has to look the way people expect. Nobody would question it if it were 100% photographic, but that bottle's painted, and subject to scrutiny and must be idealized. So, I'd make the fingers ignore the edge of the bottle like this:

My old boss Jon McClenahan used to say "It doesn't have to BE right, but it has to LOOK right". The artist's job isn't to match reality, but to match people's EXPECTATIONS of reality, which, as we all know, often have very little to do with reality itself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LMAO...not a drunk...never known any up close except a woman I used to ....know

Anonymous said...

I would not use a current pic in Chitown either. Some drunk ravaged woman might brain me with a full bottle of whiskey. I am glad Fleichmann's survived ladies not buying Fleichmann's yeast packets as I as a little kid bought for my grandma across the street. I got in BIG trouble feeding dried corn off the cob to chickens...it MIGHT have been deer bait for a hunt.
http://god-on-our-side.blogspot.com/ Vote for the footshooter serious guy of your choice...but vote.

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