Saturday, May 01, 2010
1971 - The Sharp
It’s no secret that I like my pencil ephemera, but this advert really did catch my eye. From ‘Life’ magazine, 11 June 1971.
Whoa! Check out the hair, moustache and mortar board. It doesn’t get much better than that! “Dave’s not here man!”
In 1971 ‘modern’ mechanical pencils were starting to come into their own. By modern I mean thin lead (e.g. 0.5mm) and with push top ratchet advance mechanisms – "hand assembled with watchmakers tools", no less! The ad states “Sharp…the world’s finest pencil. The Sharp makes all other pencils seem old fashioned.” Back in 1971 when they said that, there is every chance it wasn’t just advertising fluff, it was pretty much the actual truth.
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4 comments:
Great advertising. Thanks for this.
Hey, how did Pentel get my grad photo!? ;-)
It would be cool to find one of these 1971 Sharp pencils and compare it to today's Pentel Sharp pencil.
From the pic, it looks superior to the Sharp model available today.
Shame. Quality and reasonable price. Getting more difficult to find this combination in today's go-go-cheaper-cheaper world.......sigh..
I bet Germ has one =)
That isn't a Sharp in the picture. It is of the Excalibur/SG family of pencils. But, who really knows? Could have called em something different for the first few years? Shame that Pentel doesn't keep much in the way of records.
And yes, I do have one, well 2 actually, if what's in the picture is black with gold accents. 1 in 0.5mm and 1 in 0.7mm.
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