I’m thinking most operators of the Series 56 Roller Compactor kept their legs on the inside, but then they probably didn’t have such pretty legs. And note that this fine machine “is available with both manual or power steering (which is going to thrill a slip of a gal like Doris)”. Well, she does look rather thrilled. “It’s a great Feeling“, after all. So was the Series 56 a vibrating roller-compactor? Or would that not have gotten past the censors if it was?
Hat tip to PaulB.
Well, my employer has had Mike Rowe pitching for us for a while, but his legs aren’t nearly as nice… I coached Mr. Rowe and our CEO for an internal video a couple years ago – nice guy.
Every time I pass a vibratory compactor at work, it gives me a strong urge, too, but probably not the kind you were alluding to.
Oh, I don’t know….Mr Rowe isn’t to bad for a gentleman of a certain age.
Simply astonishing. But for some reason, I want to buy one.
The vibratory capability jumped to mind before I read that far. Vibratory compactors will shake the ground a few feet away.
If Bomag were to run a similar ad today, I cannot think of any current female celebrity with the same image that Doris Day cultivated.
But I can think of a few with the opposite image of Doris whom no one would be surprised if they endorsed a vibrating roller compactor… 😉
Rosie O’Donnell would be perfect.
That creates a truly scary mental picture.
Like…Paris Hilton?
Lindsey Lohan. Except that most readers of the ad would wish that she had been posed in front of the machine. Being run over.
Also love the cross-marketing for Ms. Day’s current movie. Wonder if the roller had a cameo in it?
It is utterly IMPOSSIBLE for Doris Day to look bad in ANYTHING! What an incredibly beautiful woman. She still is…
Love her, lover her, love her…
P.S: “steam” rollers have always been cool to me, third only to my favorite piece of heavy equipment – a road grader. My second favorite? A “steam” shovel or crane!
Yeah – I know they’re no longer powered by steam, but that’s the term I grew up with, so that makes it right by me!
Neat ! .
Doris Day wasn’t slim but she sure was beautiful .
-Nate
You never see any pretty ladies driving those around these days…
I don’t think those high heels are OSHA approved footwear.
it’s okay because she had steel toes.
@JJ-
With all the petite soccer moms, divorced cougars, and gangsta wives you see driving around in blinged out Suburbans and F-150s, I have to politely disagree 🙂 .
@Christopher O. Lol, that is getting especially true with Yukon Denalis & Escalades. Seeing a man driving one without is wife in the passenger seat is rare. You either see a mom with kids or a woman by herself. I always want to ask, “And what does your husband drive?”
Monster SUVs seem to be the ride of choice for little women who think they need protection from the world.
Hence the CUV craze – for many women it seems it’s as much about altitude as it is about size or mass.
Some just want to feel the power between their legs…..like Doris in the above ad.
Heyoooooooooooooooooo.
JJ – female operators are preferred by a lot of owners/contractors – they tend to go easier on the equipment!
That thing looks awfully dangerous. I mean, you just sit on top of it like that? Wouldn’t it be easy to fall off and the rear Fred Flintstone roller runs over you? Just sayin’
And OK! this has got to be the most unusual construction equipment ad I have seen as of yet. I mean, The thrill of it all!
This is bizarre! Looks like an ad you’d see in a Naked Gun movie.
“De Luxe”. What does that mean in this case ? It came with a headlight ?
This reminds me of when Westinghouse insisted that its spokesperson, Betty Furness, step out of her role of hawking appliances, and do an institutional film touting the virtues of a jet engine. She balked for reasons of credibility, but was bound by a contract, so she altered her narration to say, “They tell me it works by…”
And Oscar Levant provided my all-time favorite quote regarding Doris Day: “My last picture for Warners was Romance on the High Seas. It was Doris Day’s first picture; that was before she became a virgin.”
And apparently Miss Day had a long-term relationship with cornbinders…
Wow, a mechanized Lady Godiva.
The only recent celebrity endorsement by a truck & equipment OEM is a recent campaign that Volvo did where Jean Claude Van Damme the splits on a pair ov Volvo COE Trucks.
Pop had a vibratory compactor – it ended up being necessary to bid on and do road jobs. It was a truly strange piece of equipment. I don’t remember the brand, but it was powered by a Deutz air-cooled diesel engine that had a little pony engine for a starter. All the Deutz did was shake the unit – it was set up to tow behind another piece of equipment – whatever tractor didn’t have another job at the time.
The vibrations were such that any woman who valued her figure would be scared to ride on it lest everything sag six inches by the end of a few minutes’ ride.
Deutz diesel engines are everywhere. Maybe the compactor was a Scheid or a Hamm ?
Certainly prefer Doris to Clod van dimm and Volvo trucks have cab suspension when you enter a turn the cab leans not the truck just the cab quite disconcerting other than that not bad trucks to drive.
I do love these awkward product endorsements…..and now here’s Grace Kelly for the 3043 Combine Thresher and Bailer!
It would likely be considered sexist today. International would probably get a lot of heat on Twitter (and elsewhere) with an ad like this.
As they are using the beauty of Doris Day to help draw your attention to the ad. Otherwise, she has nothing in common with the product. Especially, when she is so well dressed. Plus, the glamor closeup, with earrings. So 1950s! lol
Maybe if she had something in relation to this particular product. Like, if it was a motorcycle, or truck she owned.
Gee, the buying public must’ve became so tired of the use of “De Luxe” in the 1950s. The term was so overused. Like ‘Brougham’ in the 70s. Or ‘Sport’ in the 80s.
Yeah, Deluxe was everywhere in the 50’s……Turbo was big in the 80’s too.
That’s what I do like about the ad, its how they really have nothing in common.
It is funny, as advertisers could never do this today. As tastes are so fractured. Everybody knew and loved Dinah Shore, Danny Thomas or Doris Day in the 50s. It wasn’t a big risk, to have them endorse anything. Just buy ad space in Life magazine or The Ed Sullivan Show. And you’d reach 85% of households. Today, you’d have to stick to endorsements that would appeal to a specific demographic. Plus modern advertising is so heavily analyzed, with so much more self-awareness.
Human perception has changed this considerably. Think back to the first days of cinema; people would see a moving image of a train approaching them and would literally run out of the screening tent in fear. These days, evybody can edit their own film.
For anyone interested, there is a (scary) example of modern marketing techniques in the nytimes;
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Long article, but worth the read.
Thank you for that article Don. I knew market research was getting quite intense. But it is now bordering on intrusive in many cases.
Google is perhaps the most noticeable tracker in our lives. Doing the work for so many other third party firms.
I can’t see a lot of the text very well but it seems the writers had a good time with a tongue-in-cheek approach. Humorous way to catch attention with pretty lady where you would not expect to see her. Before ads caught your attention by just being crude.