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Ads that I like: # 118


This little ripper of an ad emerged out of China just as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was kicking off. I suspect that the artist might have had an idea what an angry mob baying for blood might have looked like.

The tagline for this campaign is the snappy Resolutely support the American people in their resistance against American imperialist aggression in Vietnam. I especially like how the artist has managed slip in what I expect were a multitude of ‘gags’ to impress his friend.

For example, what is Leon Trotsky doing there? In fact, I believe that they have gone with Trotsky as the primary model, and hilariously fused in Stalin’s brow as an unsubtle pop to their Internationalist cousins.

And what is with that angry French sailor (I expect he’s from Martinique)? I know that Red China was pretty much a closed state, but those Anglo features and African skin tones really do clash with the Gallic shirt

Added props must also be awarded for sneaking in that Ukrainian kulak on the extreme left (note the irony there).

Honestly, could there possibly have ever been a scene in the whole of the United States that even remotely resembled this gathering in 1966?

Comments

Roddy said…
My god, you do some homework when you dismantle a pamphlet.
What a mismatch of society from 1966. I guess this could only happen in the enlightened era of Chinese conscientiousness.
Sixty six. I couldn't even see black and white together. Unless they were asking for trouble.
You haven't been to Los Angeles have you?

very funny (and now I know what a kulak is)
Kris McCracken said…
Roddy, I didn't even mention the angry Michael Douglas-lookalike from Falling Down...

PA, no I haven't. The poor Kulaks. Stalin didn't like them very much.
Roddy said…
Where, where?

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