Everything about this is weird and wonderful. The crude cartoony people. Their ridiculous expressions. The double-entendre of attracting girls with a "Rising Tie." And the assumption that popularity with women means sending them into hysterics: fits of distress or uncontrollable laughter, take your pick! The girl on the left is distressed, the one on the right maniacally amused. Either that or she's checking out Distressed Girl's choice of shoes, since she isn't even looking at the tie.
Then there's the sad, Woody-Allenesque floating head behind the Popular Guy. Perhaps it is really his alter ego - since this whole Rising Tie thing is rife with Freudian implications. Or maybe the floating head is the shadow of Mr. Popular's former self, symbolizing the second thoughts that even the silliest man might have, in a quiet moment, about this thing.
"Your friends will be held spellbound and remain fascinated for hours..." Like that's going to happen. All you have to do is "take a deep breath and say 'Ah.'" Practice, you see, for when you're at the doctor's getting checked out. I reckon that'll be pretty soon now.
From Popular Mechanics (who are also Popular Guys), April 1949.
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20 comments:
If this is so effective, why hasn't it worked for Dilbert?
I don't think the ad writers understand what the word "hysterics" actually means. And I can't believe this product didn't come from the fine folks in Chicago. Maybe it was Just Too Weird for them?
I want one!
I'm sure they had much better success with this products as compared with the earlier 'Rising Ascot' and 'Rising Pocket Liner' products.
Evidently it leads the ladies to grab their own boobs they in such hysteria yet the popular guy's many friends can't help calm the hysteria since they themselves are spellbound.
Hey, it's smiling Bob from the Enzyte commercials!
Schwing! Can you believe the tie????!
It kinda reminds me of Dilbert; a fully-erect Dilbert. Still, a buck's not bad for something that causes the ladies to go for their breasts. Hot.
I was trying desperately to come up with something witty too say, but I'm just too hysterical!
I can't stop looking at that ad. The merriment is mesmerizing.
Stephanie - Excellent question!
Tori - Yes, I think there was a definite misunderstanding. And I must say I was disappointed that it is not a Chicago product (but I can claim it as a weird NY product, which is good too).
Eric - Yes, this is the winning number!
David - Those ladies really are acting most peculiar. And most of the guy's friends are apparently so spellbound that they have disappeared (except one, whose uneasy head remains)
TheSnackHound - I will go look that up on YouTube, because I have never heard of Enzyte!
Lin - Schwing indeed! I couldn't believe it either, so I knew it was a good one.
Patrick - Mind you a dollar was a lot more money back in the early 50s - my parents spent about $10 a week on groceries in the early 60s.
Judy - I know, I could not believe what I was seeing!
Frogs in My Formula - It certainly is. It is just so wonderfully weird.
A wierdly phallic image.
Does that wacky tie detach itself and fly around impaling people? That's the only reason I can come up with for the women to be holding their hands up like that!
Oh my...this is for the guy who also wears the light-up bowtie. Apparently a lot of manufacturers thought that animated ties would somehow make up for a man's lack of social skills.
I think "Woody" in the background is sad that he can't "get it up" like his friend!
Shay - Oh, yeah.
Hairball - I guess they think it might.
GoRetroGirl - Yes to both! I don't know what's with all the crazy novelty ties, really. So weird.
I can definitely see people being mesmerized for hours by this -- and not in a good way.
Phyl - And also being mesmerized trying to get it to work, I would think.
I guess a dollar is worth it if you can provoke women in strapless gowns to spontaneously pop Jazz Hands.
Bill - Getting them to burst into a musical number probably takes a little more.
As used in a Dead Kennedys album insert in the early 80s.
Steve - A tie with a future, then.
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