Posted by Harry McCracken | Sunday, January 3, 2010
1 of 15 | NEXT»
Back in the mid-1940s, Seagram’s advertised its VO Canadian whiskey with a series of extremely manly magazine ads about “Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow”–unspecified futuristic thinkers who liked the fact that Seagram’s was patient enough to age VO for six years. No, it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. But the ads, each of which depicted a different miracle that would transform postwar America, are glorious. They’re entertaining when they sort-of-accurately predict scenarios that eventually came to be, such as the rise of the cell phone. And they’re even more so when they marvel at wonders-to-be such as coin-operated streetcorner fax machines. Herewith, some highlights as they appeared in LIFE magazine–click the dates to see the issues with the ads at Google Books.
[…] Looking back at the future […]
[…] cartoon about future tech that predicts the Roomba and Skype–and therefore reminds me of the eerily accurate/hilariously off-base 1940s whiskey-ad predictions I discovered a couple of months […]
[…] a nivel comercial en los años 50. Que la idea sobre el tema daba vueltas, se puede ver en una publicidad de whisky de 1943 en la que un avión volaba sobre las cabezas de la audiencia en el cine. Unos diez años […]
[…] al uit de jaren ’50. Hoe lang al over het onderwerp werd nagedacht ziet men bv. aan een Whiskey-reclame van 1943, waarbij in de bioscoop de vliegtuigen over de hoofden van de bezoekers leken weg te […]
[…] I discovered a 1940s magazine ad campaign for Seagrams Canadian Whisky that predicted 3D movies, videoconferencing, the cell phone, fax machines, and –most impressive of …. […]
January 3rd, 2010 at 6:19 am
The reason why the people (men) in the sportsbar prototype of 1946 are all watching hockey on the big screens is that Seagrams is a Canadian company and 1946 Canada was the dominant force in hockey worldwide. Actually, in 2010, Canada is still the team to beat in world hockey.
January 30th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
beautiful content i wish i could do this
February 2nd, 2012 at 1:56 am
thanks for sharing wonderful blog you won a reader here
February 7th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Very useful article. Can be refered by all age people and also can be used all over world suchabc.I will definitely bookmark this blog for future reference and further viewing. Thanks a bunch for sharing this with us! Im glad to have found this post as its such an interesting one!
February 20th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
I agree. Canada is definitely the team to beat in hockey these days and has been for awhile. Still gotta root for the Pens though. Go penguins. Even though i'm from Cleveland and my football loving relatives would probably lynch me for liking a Pittsburgh team.
molding machine<a/>
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:31 am
Duh, I shoulda been able to figure that out!
–Harry
January 30th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Many thanks for the pleasant website. It was really practical for us. Continue like giving tips in the potential as well. Essentially this was what I had been searching for, and I am glad to cam here! Thank you for discussing the facts with people this kind of.
February 2nd, 2012 at 7:21 am
outstanding images I seriously enjoyed your post thank you.
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Should we women be scared that the typical street scene in Shopping Comfort (October 1945) #10 only shows white men in suits?
Where did the rest of us go?
August 8th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Then again, these were "creative types," perhaps expressing their own preferences. "Sex in the City," but much more honestly gay. (There's NOTHING gay men like more than a bunch of attractive straight guys. We're the object of 90% + of their erotic fiction.)
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Wasn't it Nostradamus that predicted all of these way before any ad man got involved!
February 5th, 2012 at 1:05 am
I found your website perfect for my needs. It contains wonderful and helpful posts. txt loans I have read most of them and got a lot from them. To me, you are doing the greReally i am impressed from this post….the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us.at work. Carry on this. work at home In the end, I would like to thank you for making such a nice website.
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:46 pm
There are women in this future–we know because one of the breakthroughs involves delivering fresh meals to housewives who don’t have servants. But yes, the ads do seem to depict a society mostly inhabited by white men in suits. Ones who like Canadian whiskey, presumably.
–Harry
August 8th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
It would have been considered vulgar, using sex to sell booze. Not upscale; plebeian. Not done by our sort.
January 4th, 2010 at 12:05 am
It is a good thing that women are not allowed to drink whiskey.
January 4th, 2010 at 1:14 am
A friend did the meals on wheels thing just recently.
January 30th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Many thanks for the pleasant website. It was really practical for us. Continue like giving tips in the potential as well. Essentially this was what I had been searching for, and I am glad to cam here! Thank you for discussing the facts with people this kind of.
January 4th, 2010 at 1:16 am
I prefer to drink my whisky (spelled the TRUE Scottish way sans "e") straight up, early & often!
August 8th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Oddly enough, women are also best enjoyed this way. Although SHE is welcome to experiment to a point.
February 1st, 2012 at 4:28 am
The coach shoulder bags win a lot of grace and market share. It can be said that the coach is a legend in history bags at
January 4th, 2010 at 1:30 am
The plants in the Arizona desert are probably cotton plants. In looking at the scale, they are HUGE cotton plants. Which, as anyone who ever watched Gilligan's Island knows, is how plants are affected when they are exposed to radiation.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:15 am
This is the perfect blog for anyone who wants to know about this topic.wrongful death lawyer seattle You know so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I really would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
January 8th, 2010 at 9:17 am
It’s amazing that they could foresee the Sports Bar and HDTV, but not the goalie mask, or helmets {with visors} for forwards and defensemen.
August 8th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
You're not going to sell a lot of anything but rotgut, bomb shelters, and other survivalist gear by cueing your audience to their future emasculation. There were very few men then around who wouldn't have lost their lunches at the implications.
January 8th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Bob beat me to it.
January 30th, 2012 at 9:21 am
Well, I am just new to your blog site and just spent about an hour lurking and reading.juicer recipes I think I will frequent your site from now on after going through some of your posts. I will definitely learn a lot from them. Thanks one more time.
February 1st, 2012 at 11:14 am
I found your website perfect for my needs. It contains wonderful and helpful posts. sensa weight loss product reviews I have read most of them and got a lot from them. To me, you are doing the greReally i am impressed from this post….the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us.at work. Carry on this. work at home In the end, I would like to thank you for making such a nice website.
January 9th, 2010 at 9:51 am
I don’t know about Nostradamus, but a good deal of this stuff appeared on the covers of Astounding Science Fiction in the 1930s, and earlier in utopian novels of the 1890s. Check Verne, Wells, and Edwsrd Bellamy’s efficiency-oriented “Looking Backward.”
The lily-whiteness is typical. For an easy-reading checkup, look up a pre-1960s collection of cartoons from the New Yorker, Playboy, or Mad. Crowd scenes, cocktail-party scenes, bar scenes, ordinary-joe joke setup scenes–all pale enough for “Triumph of the Will.” Come to think, how many nonwhites were in “2001”?
August 8th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Why would you spend money hawking your wares to people who would not be buying them? Advertisers DISCRIMINATE by focusing on their audience; they're not by nature "change agents." However much we've been turned into "sheeple" by the heirs of Marshall MacLuhan.
January 9th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Love the Nixon / Hoover reference!!! Really funny!
January 9th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
You know, for a bunch of ad men, they were pretty close on the majority of items (of course forgetting that women would actually be part of our future!!!). Anyway, the seem to be obsessed with shopping (OK the are ad men), but believe it or not, a lot of the Internet today could be a facsimile of what they were trying to convey. None the less, amazing how 60m years ago they were pretty close.
About sports bars, what is the deal about hockey?
January 15th, 2010 at 6:27 am
I don’t get why they thought the groceries on wheels thingy was futuristic.Helms bakery trucks had been delivering all manner of baked goods in trucks with large sliding drawers from which you could select individual items for decades. Good humor ice cream had horse drawn carts near the turn of the century. Milk men had been delivering all manner of dairy items since the 19th century, and just how old is Schwan’s food delivery service? even See’s candy had motorcycle delivery home delivery in the mid 20’s. DUH !
January 19th, 2010 at 7:46 am
What? No mention in your page of the “hygienic lighting” in the office of the future offering a germ-free workplace? I didn’t realize that incandescent bulbs caused epidemics….
January 19th, 2010 at 11:01 am
A lot of people forget Robert Anson Heinlein, the Dean of Science Fiction, who at the time predicted most, if not all of theses modern wonders is his great stories. Then there was Robert C. Clark.
August 8th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
The author wrote that Seagram's attributed the predictions to unnamed futurists. Back then, that may well have meant one of those two or any number of other SF writers. The power-via-lightning probably references (in a crude way that has the virtue of being intelligible to Joe Public) the rumours that Tesla had managed to prove a similar concept–and then kept it mostly to himself. (He'd had a bellyful of industrialists and capitalists by then.) Rand probably modeled her "shrugging" inventor at "White Motors" after this apocrypha.
Given that Tesla invented virtually every meaningful aspect of the Electrical Age–while working 96 hours per week digging subway trenches by hand–I'm inclined to believe it, pretty much without reservation.
March 25th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Who is Robert C. Clark?
Sure you don't mean Arthur C. Clarke?
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:45 am
Anyone know the name of the ad company that created this for Seagram?
January 25th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Considering that at the time, TV was a pretty rounded square and movies were still mostly made in square formats (widescreen movies didn’t start being common until the 50s), that seems to me to be the most interesting thing about the whole sports bar concept!
April 27th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
I noticed that too…very interesting 😉
January 26th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Seconding Timothy – not only did they depart from the square format and rounded corners, but they got the 16:9 aspect ratio nearly exactly. Eerie.
The Golden Rectangle strikes again. Thank you Fibonacci!
September 21st, 2010 at 2:28 am
Due you know why movies moved from square to wide screen, simple it made the viewing experiance more realistic and life like. The human eye has a wider field of view horizontally (left-right) than vertically (up-down). Just think how much fun the had with making The Wizard of OZ into a 1:2.261 them into a 16:9 screen.
They can remake 4:3 TV into 16:9 but that will take computers to create the virtual 4:3 format world. Then artists to create the missing objects needed to fill the missing content. I wrote long explanations how when they started to re-master the 1966-69 Star Trek for Blue Ray Disks. It can be done but it is hard, it may be easier to get the government to change our tax system.
May 29th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
The odd thing is that moving walkways were operational in New York city in the late 19th century. Not a new concept by any measure.
June 21st, 2010 at 10:22 am
when i get lazy cooking, i just order from food delivery services.;;”
July 8th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
hmmm,,,,funny
http://laptopbd.net
August 8th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
"…I can't explain why they're all watching hockey." I can.
They're referencing what they and every American knew back in the day: Life in New York City. Hoops and Pro Football mattered not very much back then. Baseball was still a day game. What mattered was the fights, the track, and the Rangers. (As late as the early 70's, the latter were arguably a bigger deal the Knicks.) Guys like Frank and Dean got dressed up to see them at the Garden.
September 21st, 2010 at 2:44 am
Back in 1975 as I stated High School I drew up this plan to use Ultra-violet lasers to create IONic vacuum tunnels through air to tap this static electric energy that was accumulating in the clouds and store the energy in giant decapitators (round oil storage tanks with a coiled metal sheet in a spiral to store the mega voltage) Then with transformers you could convert it to sell to the power companies.
A similar process in reverse of your hand held UV laser pistol can channel a electric shock to a person just like a TASER does today.
Rumor has it today the Army has a con tactless stun device, but from rumors it is an acoustical beam more like a Sonic Disruptor. You know like the Klingons used in Star Trek in the 60's
September 21st, 2010 at 3:21 am
Very interesting visions from the WWII era, much of it from the 30's and Amazing Fiction Magazine/Books. The big question is this was authored before the Death of NASA on 1/15/2010 or the learning of the facts that at our current pace a Capitalization economy is on it's last breaths. And to be replaced with a system of the Feds provid every thing. And what they give you will become better as you empower them to more power with your votes.
If we could erase these technology advancements it may actully be a nice choise to be able to live make in the free world of the 30's, 40's or even the 50's as the 60's gave us the Duck and Cover under your school desk when the air raid sirens went off. Then never look out the windows because the light will fry you like an ant under your magnifying glass.
I remember those drills in K, 1st. 2nd, and 3rd grade. Actually 3rd grade we went to the school basement. They were the same as the tornado drills in Sioux Falls SD in 1967-8.
What will the 2050 edition look like, and wait til they see the hairdo's of that time in the 1980's or the cloths of the 70's.
November 30th, 2010 at 9:40 am
"In the future as envisioned by Seagram’s, atomic power will somehow make it possibly to build bountiful farms in the desert."
Very possible. Nuc desalinization and pumping to the desert…
January 28th, 2011 at 9:17 am
This proves… to see the unseen, to predict the future – the mankind needs the help of whiskey. Now tell me, who is bigger than Einstein? 🙂
February 18th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Go Rangers !!
March 22nd, 2011 at 12:07 am
great list; the folks that thought of that stuff should work for Microsoft; maybe they’d actually “invent” something original that works!
March 26th, 2011 at 8:42 am
The admen @ Seagrams were more prescient than the editors of this article who failed to notice that the October 45 ad "shopping comfort" accurately predicted vice-president dick Cheney shooting ole what's-his-face in the store front diorama!
April 1st, 2011 at 11:19 am
I didn't see anyone walking around with their pants on the ground either!
April 4th, 2011 at 6:54 am
In the very early '60s, in Winnipeg, Engelhardt (Sonny) Stelzer, modified 'stepvans' by installing Onan generators to power on-board freezers and microwave ovens (then known as 'Radar Ranges') and private channel communications between these vans and the commercial kitchen where a variety of meals were prepared and flash frozen. When a telephone order was placed at the office, it was relayed to the closest van. The driver took the items ordered from the freezer, put them in the microwave, set it to the predetermined time for the items, and drove immediately to the customer's house. Average time from call to piping hot delivery – 12 minutes. At that time, the latest innovation in lighted signs was the fluorescent plastic version replacing the neon signs. In Manitoba no lights were allowed on the sides of vehicles. Sonny obtained an exception and the vans all had fluorescent signs on tehm reading, 'Mom's Radar Kitchen' …
April 6th, 2011 at 2:50 am
In the UK it's very common to see fast food (kebabs, fish & chips etc.) prepared and sold from vans at the roadside. Some of these have regular routes which take them through residential areas. Not exactly gourmet cooking, but it is food prepared in a van on your doorstep.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Nice predictions, but I prefer Star Trek's future gadgets. Bring on the Holo-decks!
September 29th, 2011 at 5:49 am
There are certainly a lot of details like that to consider. That is a great point out bring up. I offer the ideas above as general inspiration but clearly you will discover questions like the just one you bring up where the most important thing will be working within honest good faith. I don? t know if best practices have emerged around stuff like that, but I am sure your job is clearly seen as a fair game. Both boys and girls feel the impact of just the moment’s pleasure, for the rest in their lives.
October 2nd, 2011 at 2:05 am
The author must not eat at gourmet food trucks, because the last one of the series (15 Traveling Kitchens Deliver Packaged Dinners) is what’s happening all across the US right now. There’s lots of amazingly good gourmet food trucks that will pull up in neighborhoods or business areas all throughout the day. Some even have mobile phone ordering services with systems like Yorder, and have bicycle delivery in a limited area around the truck.
In general, this is a great look at the future…. from a past perspective and shows you that none of our ideas today are really that new, we just have the technology to make them reality now.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
"Sorry to miss your call at 7:00 dick" I'd say the same thing if I was being called at 7:00am.
November 13th, 2011 at 7:53 pm
"IT's" A FAX**TV !+ where that stiff Drink +
November 14th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
In regards to slide 15 Traveling Kitchens Deliver Packaged Dinners, I would imagine one would need the services of a traveling kitchen if they're too blitzed from drinking Seagram's VO to make dinner!
November 14th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Fantastic goods from you, man. Ive study your stuff ahead of and you are just as well amazing. I enjoy what you've got right here, adore what you are stating and the way you say it. You make it entertaining and you even now manage to help keep it wise. I cant wait to go through additional from you. That is really an incredible web blog and for that I want to get more blogs on it.I also want to get posts on Popular Restaurants.Is it possible for you?
November 16th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
There are women in this future–we know because one of the breakthroughs involves delivering fresh meals to housewives who don't have servants. But yes, the ads do seem to depict a society mostly inhabited by white men in suits. Ones who like Canadian whiskey, presumably.
Debt Consolidation Non Profit
November 20th, 2011 at 1:24 am
Its a great site.it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. But the ads, each of which depicted a different miracle that would transform postwar America, are glorious.I prefer my friends to visit this site.thanks
firmenname finden
November 20th, 2011 at 7:54 am
Helms bakery trucks had been delivering all manner of baked goods in trucks with large sliding drawers from which you could select individual items for decades. Good humor ice cream had horse drawn carts near the turn of the century.
November 24th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
They're referencing what they and every American knew back in the day: Life in New York City. Hoops and Pro Football mattered not very much back then. Baseball was still a day game. What mattered was the fights, the track, and the Rangers. (As late as the early 70's, the latter were arguably a bigger deal the Knicks.) Guys like Frank and Dean got dressed up to see them at the Garden.
homestays | HR Consultant
December 1st, 2011 at 10:51 am
Thanks for sharing this great article! This is exactly what I was looking for. That is very interesting Smile I love reading and I am always searching for informative information like: yeast infection treatment Squidoo Lens creation
December 1st, 2011 at 10:51 am
Thanks for sharing this great article! This is exactly what I was looking for. That is very interesting Smile I love reading and I am always searching for informative information like: yeast infection treatment Squidoo Lens creation
December 5th, 2011 at 4:32 am
They're referencing what they and every American knew back in the day: Life in New York City. Hoops and Pro Football mattered not very much back then. Baseball was still a day game. What mattered was the fights, the track, and the Rangers. (As late as the early 70's, the latter were arguably a bigger deal the Knicks.) Guys like Frank and Dean got dressed up to see them at the Garden.
Nadstrešnice
buy no no hair removal
December 7th, 2011 at 10:42 am
The anonymous advertising creative who imagined the future 70 years ago was a phenomenal futurist. These whiskey ads were uncannily accurate in predicting everything from cell phones and video conferencing to flat screen TVs.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
The reason why the people (men) in the sportsbar prototype of 1946 are all watching hockey on the big screens is that Seagrams is a Canadian company and 1946 Canada was the dominant force in hockey worldwide. Actually, in 2010, Canada is still the team to beat in world hockey.
Shake Weight Pro
December 16th, 2011 at 3:08 am
Thanks for excellent blog. I am really happy to participate. you can also learn about-
The McAllen garage door experts at General Garage Door Service have been building custom garages, gates, and doors since 1991.
December 26th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
La razón por la cual las personas (hombres) en el prototipo sportsbar de 1946, todos están observando hockey en las pantallas grandes es que Seagrams es una compañía canadiense y 1946 Canadá fue la fuerza dominante en el hockey en todo el mundo. De hecho, en 2010, Canadá sigue siendo el equipo a vencer en el mundo del hockey.
December 26th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
I got charming.it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. But the ads, each of which depicted a different miracle that would transform postwar America, are glorious.I prefer my friends to visit this site.thanks
Sports Logos
January 11th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
You know, I’ve been googling Improve Your Speedall day to find this Truth About Quicknesskind information. Glad you wrote Truth About Quickness Reviewabout it. Thanks!
January 12th, 2012 at 10:06 am
I like your article. It says about sport Bar and HDTV.Fantastic article and good keep it up.
January 12th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Great good from you.I like your article. It was really amazing .I enjoy what every you says about sport bar and HDTV. thanking you for saying.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:19 am
You know, for a agglomeration of ad men, they were appealing abutting on the majority of items (of advance apathy that women would absolutely be allotment of our future!!!). Anyway, the assume to be bedeviled with arcade (OK the are ad men), but accept it or not, a lot of the Internet today could be a facsimile of what they were aggravating to convey. None the less, amazing how 60m years ago they were appealing close.
January 22nd, 2012 at 3:50 pm
The mobile grocery store was a reality in my town when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. Our neighbor up the street had a butcher shop/grocerette and every Saturday he would load up his UPS-style delivery truck with fresh meats and make his rounds. He had refrigerated cases for beef and pork and grocery store-style shelving for canned and packaged goods. He even had fresh produce and a candy section!
Carl would roll in the driveway, toot his horn and all available personnel would turn out to conduct business. I would usually be able to cadge from my mother a pair of wax lips, a handful of Pixie sticks or a packet or two of rootbeer Fizzy (think rootbeer-flavored Alka-Seltzer).
Interestingly enough, during that same period our family also had milk, bread and seafood delivered right to our door. The milk was delivered in the wee hours of the morning and was placed into an insulated aluminum box that we kept out at the front corner of our house by the driveway.
Alas, the Arab oil embargo of the seventies and the advent of lower-priced supermarkets forced the delivery people to stop their weekly/semi-weekly delivery rounds.
January 24th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Absolutely classic. The 'satellite video conferencing' picture cracks me up. Funny, it reminds me of how science fiction section of libraries in the early 20th century had books on putting a man on the moon. Seems as if someone gets hold of an idea and with enough time, the impossible eventually becomes possible in the collective awareness.
January 30th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
very interesting
January 31st, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Considering that at the time, TV was a pretty rounded square and movies were still mostly made in square formats (widescreen movies didn't start being common until the 50s), that seems to me to be the most interesting thing about the whole sports bar concept!
February 1st, 2012 at 6:26 am
Me too, I shouldn't been able to figure that out!
February 1st, 2012 at 11:24 pm
The actual unusual point is transferring pathways have been detailed throughout New york inside overdue Nineteenth century. Not really a break through simply by virtually any evaluate.
iPad vs Laptop
February 2nd, 2012 at 1:51 am
nice article Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow i just digg it
February 3rd, 2012 at 3:49 am
Dean of Science Fiction, who at the time predicted most, if not all of theses modern wonders is his great stories. Then there was Robert ….
cigarette sales
February 5th, 2012 at 9:01 am
i have read this topic and recycling is important to keep atmosphere clean and good and its also good for the people and societ its a great work.
lawyers ithaca
February 5th, 2012 at 9:55 am
This is also a very good post which I really enjoyed reading. It is not everyday that I have the possibility to see something like this.
February 5th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Thanks for such a great post i will be listing this in my monthly newsletter. Many thanks and i hope to help spread the word.
February 8th, 2012 at 12:49 am
Nicely presented information in this post, I prefer to read this kind of stuff.
The quality of content is fine and the conclusion is good. Thanks for the post……
newborn baby checklist
February 17th, 2012 at 6:59 am
A 3-D (three-dimensional) film or S3D is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception. Derived from stereoscopic photography, a regular motion picture camera system is used to record the images as seen from two perspectives , and special projection hardware and/or eyewear are used to provide the illusion of depth when viewing the film.Valuation for probate
February 20th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Nice Blog. We have lot of scavenger hunt ideas
http://scavengerhunt.org/
February 22nd, 2012 at 8:31 am
Nicely presented information in this post, I prefer to read this kind of stuff. The quality of content is fine and the conclusion is good. Thanks for the post…
February 23rd, 2012 at 8:47 am
Anyone know the name of the ad company that created this for Seagram?