BigShinyThing

Back in the 80s, HBO wanted an ident. A big, bold ident. A fly through of a city, no less. So they built one. Out of stuff, not bits. Lovingly. Then they filmed it.

No doubt intended to cash in on the upcoming Factory Girl-fever (we’re with Mr Dylan on the film — as regular readers on BST will know), Selfridges have excelled themselves with beeeeooootiful silver sixties style windows. We particularly love how our shitty new camera phone has whited-everything out even more to make it look Even More Shiny.

Music has always been attached to consumerism, from jingles to ’sales marches’ to full length novelty tunes like Henry’s Made a Lady out of Lizzie. However, it took the post-war boom for corporations to start thinking really big, and by the early 1950s they were producing all-out, Broadway-style musicals, though not to sell the product to the public but rather to entertain the workforces at corporate conventions and galas.

Give the Lady What She Wants, an original musical written in 1951 by a young composer named Llord Norlin, chronicled the history and philosophy of Marshall Field’s department stores. The automobile industry was quick to catch up with Oldsmobile’s The Mighty O!, a paean to the brand-new, chrome-finished ‘54 line. Mighty O! boasted a cast of dozens, a full orchestra and genuine Broadway talent, including the legendary Bob Fosse.

Television stars Hal Linden, Loretta Swit, Valerie Harper and David Hartman all got their big breaks in forgotten masterpieces such as The Name of the Game for Listerine, Going Great! for Rambler, and Go Fly a Kite, the highlight of General Electric’s Fifth Utility Executive Conference.

Of course, the arrival of video and PowerPoint have since put paid to such ridiculousness. The idea of a musical stage show extolling the virtues of a company, its philosophy, and its products as tools to engender loyalty and enthusiasm seems hopelessly out of date in the modern corporate world. No more Music to sell Dodges By or Diesel Dazzle. Shame.

Sick of impersonal digital photos? Not feeling the joy that is flickr? How about polaroid-ising your digital photos to get that retro feel back.

Do it here.

See also the Rasterbator.