A Different Drum

What in my eyes made the December 2, 1967 issue of The New Yorker worthy of note?

Of the 213 covers drawn by Arthur Getz for the magazine, the December 2 one was not particularly distinguished. 

The Table of Contents didn't offer much:

The movies reviewed by Brendan Gill in “The Current Cinema”—“The Fearless Vampire Killers,” “Tender Scoundrel,” and “Lemonade Joe”—were disasters.

What caused my affection for the issue were two advertisements—one for a wristwatch and the other for a brand of Scotch whisky.

With the successful conclusion of World War II, the watch industry, freed of its obligation to supply the military, began to produce, once again, timepieces for the general public. But what selling point did the watch manufacturers emphasize to lure customers to their particular product? Thinness. For the next several decades, one could hardly escape a watch advertisement that did not extoll the timepiece’s thinness, even to the point of many manufacturers claiming the title of the thinnest.  

It was, therefore, with great pleasure that I found on page 85 the following ad for a Movado chronograph:

“The Fat Watch”! Ten dimes high! How wonderfully refreshing! 

*

The second advertisement that caught my eye was for a brand of Scotch that I had never heard of before: Hankey Bannister. Unlike the full-page Movado endeavor, the Hankey ad on page 104 occupied less than half a page. “HANKEY the bold one!” it proclaimed and added satirically, “The Scotch that makes others pale by comparison.”

What Hankey was doing was placing itself in opposition to the lemming-like procession of other distillers exhorting the public to down their “light” liquids.

Here’s Vat 69:

And King William IV:

And Ambassador (claiming to be the lightest):

And then there’s Chivas Regal, which changed its bottle color from green to clear glass five years earlier (look at us—we’re really light):

*

“There is nothing new under the sun,” according to Ecclesiastes. Well, maybe there is. But as far as advertising goes, it takes a long walk in the park before one comes across a product that eschews the clichés of the herd and marches to its own drum. And in the cases of Scotch whisky and wristwatches, if the searches for lightness and thinness were carried to their ultimate conclusions, the products would disappear altogether. 

***

Notes:

‡ Chivas earlier this year announced changes to its bottle’s shape:

Chivas has unveiled a new look for its flagship blended Scotch whisky. It is the 'biggest' redesign in Chivas’ 112-year history. Chivas 12 has undergone a redesign of its bottle, label and pack. . . .The redesign is aimed to see the Chivas 12 bottle reshaped and elongated to stand taller and prouder, while still retaining its recognisable rounded shoulders.

https://www.afaqs.com/design-digest/chivas-12-undergoes-first-big-packaging-redesign-in-112-years

‡ I Googled Hankey Bannister to see if that brand is still in existence. It is. But, alas, on its website it says,

Messrs Hankey and Bannister present their Original blend of fine and rare Scotch whiskies.  Hand selected for quality and crafted with care to create a smooth, light and perfectly balanced blend renowned in society for over 250 Years.

I guess it’s too much to ask for a brand to hold out against a tide for over half a century.