“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
–Mark Twain
Does this (via my college chum Joey “Accordion Guy” DeVilla) count as found history?
(Click thru for larger version.)
It’s a clever ad in a lad-magazine way. They’ve done a nice job with the retro look, and they play right to the “gee, maybe my Dad was cool” realization I and so many of my buddies have been going through as we age. Of course, if you’re sorry you missed out on unabashed Kennedy-era sexism, they also play to that too. (Why no distaff version: “Your Dad Wasn’t Your Mom’s First”?)
The sequel to the ad, Your Dad Wasn’t A Metrosexual, doesn’t work for me. Real or not–I’m assured in comments that all the photos used in the campaign are genuine pics from the 60s and 70s we seem to have confirmation now that these pictures are recreations, not originals, which is what I had assumed all along–the guys in the main picture look like 21st-century frat boys in Abercrombie & Fitch. My own Dad might have dressed like the guy in the first ad to go to a party, but there’s no way he ever wore a powder-blue cardigan to go fishing. Plus it’s pretty bold for the men’s lifestyle-magazine-industrial complex to take shots at “metrosexuals”–the very pseudo-phenomenon they created just a few years back to sell crap like men’s moisturizer, hair gel, and, yes, whisky cocktails.
What I want to see now is an ad where the retro Dads are awake and bleary-eyed at 4 am, pacing the wood panelled rec room with squalling babies, up to their necks in dirty diapers: “Your Dad Drank It… Because You Cried.”
18 responses so far ↓
1 mgrasso // Jan 18, 2008 at 9:57 am
Daddy was a salesman. Daddy drank!
2 Chris // Jan 18, 2008 at 9:59 am
““Your Dad Drank It… Because You Cried.”
Flawless victory!
3 Foxtown // Jan 18, 2008 at 11:04 am
My dad was geek. Not to say he wasn’t at good parties or any of those other things, but he was a geek.
This is pretty funny though.
4 Tom // Jan 18, 2008 at 11:12 am
“Your Dad beat the hell out of you and your mother whenever he got drunk. And he drank a lot of Canadian Club whiskey martinis.”
5 Rob // Jan 18, 2008 at 11:13 am
Foxtown: Geeks can be macho, too! In the comments to the post about this ad at Joey’s blog, someone writes: “Your dad never used the Standard Template Library. FORTRAN IV all the way, jocko. He threw down whisky. Neat.” (I don’t know what all those words mean, but it sounds good.)
6 Jess Nevins // Jan 19, 2008 at 8:32 am
“Your dad tried Sake in Japan, some gawdawful local crap in Korea during the war that gave me the trots, and about eighteen varieties of vodka and gin…but he always came back to Canadian Club.”
7 peaseblossom // Jan 19, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Can everyone play?
“Your Dad drank whiskey cocktails. Made with Canadian Club. He cheated on your Mom. With his secretary. Damn right they’re divorced.”
8 Rob // Jan 20, 2008 at 11:53 am
That’s the spirit!
9 Adam // Jan 20, 2008 at 6:31 pm
“Damn right your Dad’s been drinking Labatt’s Blue for over half a century. Blue collar? Blue beer!”
10 Nat // Feb 11, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Just as an FYI, NONE of the Canadian Club pictures are mock-ups. They’re all actual photographs. They were all taken in the 60′s & 70′s.
11 Rob // Apr 21, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Joey points out more Damn Right ads around Accordion City. I’ve seen them in London too. The generational focus of the ads seems to be blurring: wouldn’t the guys in the “tweezed” poster (blue cardigan notwithstanding) likely kick the ass of the guy in the “van” poster?
12 Craig // Sep 6, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Poke fun all you want. This advertisement is absolutley brilliant. It’s funny how when a man reaches his early twenties, his teenage angst wears away and he realizes that his dad may have been fucking cool.
“Damn right your dad sealed the deal.”
13 Maggie // Oct 8, 2008 at 9:41 am
my dad is actually in one of these adds!!!! SO funny! I am trying to get a post of it myself
14 someone // Oct 23, 2008 at 7:53 am
nat is right. I’m a former creative at that agency (which was energy bbdo in chicago) and I remember getting that office-wide email from the team that did this asking for our family pictures from ye olde times.
15 Rob // Oct 23, 2008 at 8:12 am
Well, if the pictures are real that only makes the ads more awesome. Thanks for commenting!
16 Mark // Nov 6, 2008 at 7:04 pm
My Dad dodged the draft.
Damn right he drank Canadian Club
17 Greg // Jan 13, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Know what you are talking about before you open your mouth Nat. These are all mock ups, but they did a great job huh? And no your dad is not in one of thesee pictures moron. This shoot was done in L.A. in summer 2007.Google it and educate yourselves.
18 Greg // Jan 13, 2009 at 12:59 pm
In fact here ya go, the only thing they used from the original pics are the backgrounds. http://blog.photoshelter.com/2008/03/tearsheet-with-amanda-sosaston.html
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