Jealousy exploded through a day of emails!
And my research in WH Smith and through years of reading mags has concluded that there are 3 main types of adverts you see in guitar mags (I've spoken to Chris about this, but I think it is really interesting):
1. Product:
This does what it says on the tin. It's usually a photo of the product and a bunch of technical info to try and give the potential buyer some idea what they are buying. I found this old ad after a quick bit of googling, but the format hasn't changed a great deal.
Variation, but still just a product and explanation.
Another interesting example, but still just product shot and explanation.
2. The endorsee/players:
Old example (but very cool), this is based on the premise that "(brand x) is good enough for these amazing players, think what it could do for you!" Again the format hasn't changed much.
The style of these ads seems to vary dependent on the product, the example I sent Chris was for a company called Mesa Boogie, who make amps for metal/rock players, so their list of endorsees offer that re-enforcement. Randon old example...
This is an awesome example as its a odd product, so endorsement helps sell it, "you too can get the special sound that is used by...".
3. The Hero:
This goes past the endorsement, this is a super endorsement! You need a real legend or guitarists guitarist to get one of these! This is one of my favourites,
because the BB King signature guitar is built to his specifications. We are branching into the idea that these people have specific products built for them or the sale models are built to emulate the alterations that the guitarists have made.
Using Ted Nugget to sell anything, dubious move, but still he is famous.
Again format is simple, hero photo, some info about the artist and their relevance to the product.
The interesting thing with the hero ad is the style, the style has to be dictated by the player and their music, which could be really interesting in terms of design style for Chris as their list of artist custom models include: Dave Mustaine (megadeath), Paul Weller, Lemmy (motorhead), Kerry King (slayer), Randy Rhodes (Ozzy's guitarist) and Jimi Hendrix. The last 2 being slighty weird as they are both dead.
But just look at this laundry list of quotes that cover the gambit of guitarists!
Marshall Amps :: Quotes
I found looking all this up really interesting, the images are from all over the web, but I found most of them at:
Vintage Guitar - Vintage Guitar / Amp Advertisements, 1950s-1980s
Which was really helpful as there are tonnes of examples of cool as retro graphics on there.
Well that was my first Jazz-worthy post...