Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Selling Sounds With Saucers


Even after the 1970s had drawn to a close, leaving the public with memories of such movies as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Wars," the theme of aliens and space fiction remained popular among artists of many persuasions during the following decade.

In November of 1980, this curious magazine advertisement for Delco-GM car speakers was making the rounds. An artist's impression of Mars, perhaps, with red sky and red surface? Unidentified flying speakers in the sky, including an unintended George Adamski "scout ship" motif on the left? A "2001: A Space Odyssey" style monolith speaker imbedded in the ground?

What a pity, how so much otherworldly ad art mildly suggestive of UFOs becomes quickly forgotten after serving a specific purpose. Yes, saucers sell, but for some peculiar reason the fantasy usually attracts more public interest than the evidence.*

* Per new blogging guidelines, I probably should mention that I'm neither endorsing the product in this advertisement, nor being compensated in any way for posting it -- not that in-vehicle audiocassette or citizen band radio speaker systems are exactly burning up the world of high-tech more than 30 years later. Nor, in my explicit defense, is this an endorsement of contactee George Adamski, any contactee who ever wrote a book claiming a relationship with social events and civilizations on planets in our solar system, or photos of vacuum cleaners disguised as purported flying saucers in general. Hmm, yeah, I guess that covers it all.