Random Retro Riffraff #3: Esoterica Beauty Cream
It came from 1965:
A few thoughts:
- This product was doubtless endorsed by Alma Archer, the professional stressmonger whose Encyclopedia of Beauty and Charm had an entire generation of women lighting candles to St. Anthony on account of their cruddy elbows.
- ESOTERICA is the raddest product name ever. Like, Tilda Swinton will peddle it door to door in Charlie Kaufman’s next film, and everyone who buys it will turn into sad gray vapors that inhabit abandoned ventriloquist dummies.
- I love old-timey copywriters and their earnest must-engender-consumer-confidence bullshittery. This ad copy feels like a good flannel suit and a firm handshake. The approach sounds almost fresh, the way mothballed names like Polly and Amos are starting to seem new again. I wonder if less flash and irony would work better today. Would I buy more Cool Ranch Doritos if I thought they were made in “a trustworthy 52-year-old laboratory”? PERHAPS.
Today’s question: What are your favorite pretentiously named beauty products?
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The first thought that occurred to me when I saw this post (as I wander through my fifties, and the age spots multiply across my hands like raindrops presaging the storm to come), was “I wonder if they still make that stuff…”
You wield a mean simile, Don. Are you a writer too?