Monday, September 21, 2009

Back to the '60s

This morning's Oprah Winfrey Show made the '60s look pretty innocent as well as pretty old. She remarked on how memorable the era's commercials were: "Cleans like a white tornado!" (Ajax, of course)This made me think of the huge role played by early television in forming Americans' material culture and giving them words and slogans to talk about it, or jingles to sing about it. This picture of the '60s made it look pretty innocent; not much on free speech, free love etc. It's the Mad Men version: nostalgia for nice suits. But keep my father's HA (Hair Arranger, green in a bottle), please.