Category: 1980’s

In short, what made the campaign memorable wasn’t just its tagline, but its boldness: daring to feature a teenager in a suggestively styled ad at a time when sexual innuendo in fashion marketing was still emerging. It launched Calvin Klein into new heights of fame—and sparked ongoing debates about exploitation, youth, and the limits of advertising. Let me know if you’d like to see the original commercials or how Brooke Shield’s perspective on this evolved over time!

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Calvin-Klein.mp4

In the early 1980s, 15-year-old Brooke Shields became the face of a provocative Calvin Klein Jeans campaign photographed by Richard Avedon. It featured perhaps the most famous tagline in fashion advertising:

“You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Reddit+14People.com+14Wikipedia+14

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🔥 What Made It So Controversial

• Shields’ youth and the sexual undertones of the campaign sparked intense public backlash. U.S. TV stations in cities like New York, including ABC and CBS, banned the commercial outright. Vintag.es
• Critics accused the campaign of pushing boundaries into “soft porn” or exploitation of a minor. The Sun+14Reddit+14Vogue+14

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💥 The Public Response and Legacy

• Brooke later reflected that she hadn’t fully understood the double meaning and considered herself naive at the time. Despite her personal discomfort over the backlash—including paparazzi cries of “How could you and your mother?”—the campaign was hugely successful. Vogue
• Klein himself praised her energy and charisma, calling her the perfect young spokesperson for the launch of his designer jeans line. Vogue+14People.com+14Vintag.es+14
• The controversy paradoxically boosted brand awareness; the campaign “backfired” in the best way possible, even leading to sales of Calvin Klein underwear overtaking jeans. Vogue

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🏁 Long-term Cultural Impact

• The campaign is remembered as a milestone in shock advertising, forever changing how fashion could use sexuality to grab consumer attention. People.com+3Wikipedia+3Vintag.es+3
• Brooke’s ads were later viewed alongside other boundary-pushing Calvin Klein campaigns from the 1990s featuring teenage models that similarly raised objections about objectification and youth exploitation. Pinterest

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🧭 In Retrospect

• Brooke Shields, now in her late 50s, embraced the nostalgia. She recently auctioned the actual jeans from the campaign, valued at around $50,000, acknowledging the impact and significance of that early moment in her career. People.com+1People.com+1

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Timex-Complete-1.mp4

🕰️ Timex: A Watch That Made History
Founded in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company in Connecticut, Timex began by making affordable timepieces for everyday Americans. The brand reinvented itself in the 1940s with a sleek new name—Timex, a blend of “Time” and “Kleenex”—to match its modern, mass-produced watches known for durability and reliability.

But it wasn’t just engineering that made Timex a household name—it was television, and one unforgettable man.

🎙️ John Cameron Swayze, a former NBC news anchor turned enthusiastic pitchman, became the trusted face of Timex in the 1950s. He hosted live commercials that put the watches through outlandish “torture tests”: strapped to outboard motors, frozen in ice, dropped off buildings, even attached to a jackhammer. Time and time again, the watch survived, and Swayze would deliver the now-legendary line:

“It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

📺 That catchy slogan, born in a golden era of live TV and hard-sell advertising, helped Timex become one of the best-known and best-selling watch brands in the world. Even today, the phrase still echoes as a symbol of toughness and timeless style.

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https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Fotomat.mp4

📅 Founded in 1965 – FotoMat started in the mid-1960s and quickly became a recognizable part of suburban America. The company was originally based in Florida.

🏢 Boom in the 1970s – By the late 1970s, FotoMat had over 4,000 kiosks across the U.S., often found in shopping center parking lots. They were a common sight in suburban neighborhoods.

🕰 Innovative for Its Time – At its peak, FotoMat was considered revolutionary because it provided fast photo processing before one-hour labs existed. Customers could drop off film and pick up their prints the next day—something unheard of at the time!

💰 Acquired by Kodak – In 1980, Kodak bought FotoMat, hoping to use it to expand its film processing services. However, as technology advanced, demand for film development began to decline.

🎥 Early VHS Rental Pioneer – Before Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, FotoMat was one of the first companies to offer movie rentals by mail in the early 1980s. Customers would order a VHS or Betamax movie from a catalog, and it would be delivered to a nearby kiosk for pickup.

📉 The Decline – The rise of one-hour photo labs, drugstore processing, and eventually digital photography made FotoMat less relevant. By the early 2000s, the brand had all but disappeared.

🏗 Repurposed Kiosks – Many former FotoMat booths were converted into coffee stands, smoothie shops, flower kiosks, and even small banking kiosks. Some still exist today with new uses!

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Here is the voting machine I remember most. In my school, they were kept by the custodian’s office and we thought we were so clever discovering where they store them. They’d wheel them out the night before election day and set them up in the gymnasium. I also remembered when the bars had to remain closed until the polls closed so the “drink” would have an influence on the person’s vote.