Your tax dollars at work... Animation produced in 1975 for America's upcoming bicentennial, on behalf of the US Information Agency. Gentlemen, spark your bongs...
Ah, yes. It's been many years since Nappy first that.
The gummint was, as usual, totally out of touch. That cartoon might have made some sense a few years before it came out. It was dated and pretty silly at the time.
Nappy had dropped out of college in the mid-'60s and went back to school at a state university in the fall of '74, while Gerry Ford was president. Saigon hadn't yet fallen (4/30/75). It was after the Arab Oil Embargo of '73 when cars waited in long lines to get gas, when it was available at all, that is.
SNL had not yet debuted. The Smothers Brothers and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In were off the air, though Lily Tomlin's Ernestine was still the on the line at the phone company. This was long before MCI and Sprint were formed to call you at dinner time about changing long distance companies. Rotary-dial phones were passé, but you still ran into them a lot.
Folks like Archie Bunker were cultural icons. Not yet revered as the Greatest Generation, just familiar as cranky parents, big-bosses and established politicians. They were our grown ups. Academia was still respectable; the New Left radicals of the '60s—Nappy's generation—were still up-and-comers who hadn't taken over.
On campus, it was like the circus had just left town. Some guys still wore ponytails, but long hair—
— and Afros and Jewfros were mostly replaced by the preppy look and crew cuts. The hippy aesthetic and ethos had moved on. Disco was big, glam-rock was coming in.
Instead of signing up for courses in the humanities, students wanted courses that might lead to a job. There'd been a recession and a lot of hand-wringing over English majors and PhD's who flipped burgers and pumped gas—no self-service in those days.
This cartoon was drawn and animated by hand without CGI or computer-assistance. Those technologies were still gestating in research projects at universities. Computer graphics of the day involved huge, clunky, slow, pricey monochrome terminals with very limited interactivity.
Just a week after the big Bicentennial, the image of "sky rockets in flight" was not patriotic fireworks but the Afternoon Delight, a real one-hit wonder.
Yes, the times had changed, but the bureaucrats, like generals ready to fight the previous war, were clueless. It's an updated twist on Dylan's "something is happening here, and you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones." This trippy nonsense was yesterday's zeitgeist.
At over 3 minutes in length, this was not a television commercial. Any idea for what purpose it was commissioned? Almost looks like it might have been the winning entry in some sort of Government-sponsored contest.
Good question. The USIA, which was disbanded in 1999, had as its mission:
An independent foreign affairs agency supporting U.S. foreign policy and national interests abroad, USIA conducts international educational and cultural exchanges, broadcasting, and information programs.
Their audiences were foreign, not domestic. So in some format, maybe part of Bicentennial displays or kiosks at US Consulates or at international trade fairs or expositions. This is the US telling the world about the US. For sure, the little video touches on lots of things, including the American Revolution (the Minutemen, George Washington crossing the Delaware), the Liberty Bell, mass production (Model T cars, McDonalds' hamburgers, TV sets), all-American baseball & hotdogs, Woodstock and the Apollo Moon Missions, a nation of immigrants and opportunity (Statue of Liberty), a mighty nation that grew out of humble beginnings (the acorn imagery).
So, to rephrase Ron Newman's question, exactly what were they trying to say and to whom. Who was the intended audience? What did they want them to take away? Why the trippy presentation?
In the meantime, here's Joan Rivers interviewing Ernestine in 1984 when she filled in for Johnny on the "Tonight Show." (Back then, the earlier guests stuck around and interacted with the bigger name guests who came on later; they didn't leave right after plugging their latest movie, CD or book. Check out the Sprint commercial at 4:32.)
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Far out, man.
Ah, yes. It's been many years since Nappy first that.
The gummint was, as usual, totally out of touch. That cartoon might have made some sense a few years before it came out. It was dated and pretty silly at the time.
Nappy had dropped out of college in the mid-'60s and went back to school at a state university in the fall of '74, while Gerry Ford was president. Saigon hadn't yet fallen (4/30/75). It was after the Arab Oil Embargo of '73 when cars waited in long lines to get gas, when it was available at all, that is.
SNL had not yet debuted. The Smothers Brothers and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In were off the air, though Lily Tomlin's Ernestine was still the on the line at the phone company. This was long before MCI and Sprint were formed to call you at dinner time about changing long distance companies. Rotary-dial phones were passé, but you still ran into them a lot.
Folks like Archie Bunker were cultural icons. Not yet revered as the Greatest Generation, just familiar as cranky parents, big-bosses and established politicians. They were our grown ups. Academia was still respectable; the New Left radicals of the '60s—Nappy's generation—were still up-and-comers who hadn't taken over.
On campus, it was like the circus had just left town. Some guys still wore ponytails, but long hair—
— and Afros and Jewfros were mostly replaced by the preppy look and crew cuts. The hippy aesthetic and ethos had moved on. Disco was big, glam-rock was coming in.Instead of signing up for courses in the humanities, students wanted courses that might lead to a job. There'd been a recession and a lot of hand-wringing over English majors and PhD's who flipped burgers and pumped gas—no self-service in those days.
This cartoon was drawn and animated by hand without CGI or computer-assistance. Those technologies were still gestating in research projects at universities. Computer graphics of the day involved huge, clunky, slow, pricey monochrome terminals with very limited interactivity.
Just a week after the big Bicentennial, the image of "sky rockets in flight" was not patriotic fireworks but the Afternoon Delight, a real one-hit wonder.
Yes, the times had changed, but the bureaucrats, like generals ready to fight the previous war, were clueless. It's an updated twist on Dylan's "something is happening here, and you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones." This trippy nonsense was yesterday's zeitgeist.
For something produced by the US Information Agency, there's almost no information in it at all.
At over 3 minutes in length, this was not a television commercial. Any idea for what purpose it was commissioned? Almost looks like it might have been the winning entry in some sort of Government-sponsored contest.
Good question. The USIA, which was disbanded in 1999, had as its mission:
Their audiences were foreign, not domestic. So in some format, maybe part of Bicentennial displays or kiosks at US Consulates or at international trade fairs or expositions. This is the US telling the world about the US. For sure, the little video touches on lots of things, including the American Revolution (the Minutemen, George Washington crossing the Delaware), the Liberty Bell, mass production (Model T cars, McDonalds' hamburgers, TV sets), all-American baseball & hotdogs, Woodstock and the Apollo Moon Missions, a nation of immigrants and opportunity (Statue of Liberty), a mighty nation that grew out of humble beginnings (the acorn imagery).So, to rephrase Ron Newman's question, exactly what were they trying to say and to whom. Who was the intended audience? What did they want them to take away? Why the trippy presentation?
In the meantime, here's Joan Rivers interviewing Ernestine in 1984 when she filled in for Johnny on the "Tonight Show." (Back then, the earlier guests stuck around and interacted with the bigger name guests who came on later; they didn't leave right after plugging their latest movie, CD or book. Check out the Sprint commercial at 4:32.)