We might laugh today at the blunt message of this 1950’s TV commercial. But has the message really changed? Individualism has become more prominent since the 1970’s - but the method is still the same: fear. The fear of being not cool, fear of NOT belonging to the big crowd, fear NOT to doing (buying) the best for your loved ones, fear of being NOT adorable, sexy, smart … whatever.

Since most products hardly differ in quality or features - they have to get their uniqueness either through “cool design” or marketing. For example: most cell phones for €100 have the same features for that prices, but they look very different and are often targeted at different crowds (business user, kids, pussy tech, etc).

And it is still fascinating that we still reacted to finely tuned amounts of fear and associations: “Oh, no this cell phone is made for woman. I am a strong guy, I am not gonna buy this although it’s cheaper and does exactly what I want it to do!”.

*inspired by OliviaB sending me a similar coffee ad*

I am sure this is where you want to read books about GOOD interior design and a horror stories …

The only way to take over the world … when you are a kid. Too bad they really can do it today with their computers.

This is the perfect lone wolf and lonely fighter movie. It provided a template for many Hollywood imitations like ‘Last Man standing’ with Bruce Willis.

Akira Kurusawa is one amazing men. Japan’s greatest director, his movies like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran and Dreams just blew away any western competition.

Hollywood copied many of his movies.

His solid storytelling and his talent to create amazing characters, just glues me to the screen every time! Hardly any director - apart from Steven Spielberg or David Lean has made so many epical movies.

More? Watch the whole movie online here.

Click image for even more madness.

The final scene of Sunset Boulevard [watch it on YouTube] always sends shivers down my spine. Although this movie is already half a century old it’s still fantastic and has lost nothing of it’s impact, madness and magic [here is the old trailer]. Not many old Hollywood productions age so gracefully. Thank you Billy Wilder, William Holden and most of all Gloria Swanson.

William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Nancy Olson, Erich von Stroheim - who was a great director himself.

Addicted to Oil? Use smaller cars to reduce consumption and traffic jams. You don’t need a huge Hummer or Minivan to drive around the blog. Little cars are very popular in Europe and Japan - let’s hope Americans learn that lesson as well - plus let’s hope that India and China never develops a hunger for MegaCars.

More? Isetta @ Wikipedia

Isn’t there a UN resolution against such designs? The 50’s have been a strange decade and dogs behaved very different from today. Taken from the blog of killer knitware:Threadbared.com.