Advertising: a Cold War memory
Claire Berlinski ·
Jul 3, 2010 at 8:45pm
Does anyone else remember what it was like to fly behind the Iron Curtain, step off the plane, and notice the second thing that was visually wrong with the world? (The first thing being the utter, defeated, hopeless, stony misery on everyone's faces.) Does anyone remember what it felt like when the plane landed again in the Free World--what was the first thing you noticed, the thing that made it seem as if you'd gone back to the world of vibrant technicolor after walking out of a zombie movie shot in black-and-white?
Hey, and does anyone else have memories of the way everyone on that return flight burst into spontaneous applause when the plane landed in Copenhagen, or wherever it was in Europe that wasn't the Soviet Union?
- Comment (5)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
May '10
Re: Advertising: a Cold War memory
Not exactly, but it reminds me of my first trip to Rangoon in 1971, when Burma was on a very severe "Road to Socialism." There were streets lined 5- or 6-story buildings from the pre-war period when the city was a center of commerce. Look on Google Earth @ 16° 46.438'N 96° 9.488'E.
The city looked like it had been hit by a neutron bomb. Not a single shop was open at street level. As some comedian said about an eastern European city: "Imagine a whole city lit with a single 30-watt bulb."
Jun '10
Re: Advertising: a Cold War memory
There was a sort of time machine factor too:
Trabant 601 TV commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCwqZDdT8-M
Jun '10
Re: Advertising: a Cold War memory
I can remember most vividly the change from "nyet, is not possible" to "may I help you, sir?"
May '10
Re: Advertising: a Cold War memory
I flew into Ho Chi Minh city last week, and I knew it was different from the normal idea of a "socialist republic" as soon as I got into the cab and saw the 7 inch LCD screen facing the back seat running the trailer for "Sex and the City 2" and several other ads. No gray concrete residence boxes for us. Nossir.
May '10
Re: Advertising: a Cold War memory
Reminds of me when I lived in Canada, home of some of the biggest malls on the planet, but paradoxically some of the lowest retail diversity. At the time, Canadian malls were filled with the same few types of stores, repeated over and over, offering almost precisely the same selection of goods. It was like the old Wendy's commercials about the Soviet fashion show, where a large women in a shapeless olive drab dress simply accessorized with a flashlight ("Evening wear ... Is good!") or a beach ball ("Beach wear ... Is good!") rather than actually changing her outfit.
It's funny what you miss when you live in a foreign country (or as I recently heard a Canadian quip about her own nationality, "vaguely foreign.") I used to hate malls. I mean, really hated them. But when I found myself traveling back to the US on business, at the end of my work day I would find the nearest shopping mall and just walk around. Suddenly there was something soothing and reassuring about the sheer diversity of goods on offer, garish and crappy though they often were.
I think choice feels like freedom to humans, and advertising offers choice.