{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "Fair, it was more about the visual look and the particular type of streamlined/cleanliness than the self-awareness, but thanks", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/641082840825692160/", "html": "
Anonymous asked: Fair, it was more about the visual look and the particular type of streamlined/cleanliness than the self-awareness, but thanks
\n

kontextmaschine:

\n\n

I mean it wasn\u2019t a lark, it was a professionally shot and printed promotional item as part of a really high-profile campaign supporting 9 Lives cat food

Actually that\u2019s an American cultural history point - this was in the context of the \u201cad wars\u201d of the \u201880s. For a bunch of reasons, local and regional brands in consumer staple products had been consolidated into a few rival multiproduct comglomerates with no place to grow further but at each others\u2019 expense; meanwhile the mass audience was still largely corralled into the big 3 TV networks.

So there were a lot of really intense ad campaigns for really trivial everyday products, often going negative on rival lines. The most famous example is Coke v. Pepsi, but there\u2019s things still stuck in my head like the chunkiness of Prego spaghetti sauce vs. Ragu Old World Style, and the vidya \u201cconsole wars\u201d really came out of this background

"}