“The expansion of self-service stores and the resulting change in consumer buying habits have contributed to the development of point-of-purchase materials. Their importance have increased with the growth of retailing and the needs of mass marketing. More often than not, unplanned buying decisions are made in the store, and the effective display of merchandise is the deciding factor in the consumer’s choice.

“It is in the retail store, away from the mass media, that the consumer and advertiser confront each other — the advertiser with product, the consumer with money. The results are immediately discernible.”

– Harvey Offenhartz, “Point-Of-Purchase Design” (1968)

Click on each photo for more information:

Inside the Astrosphere a theater was designed to resemble the interior of an American Airlines 707 Astrojet. The seats, although set eight across as in airliners of the future, are duplicates of 707 seating. The visitors strap themselves into the seats, put on headsets, and watch a twelve-minute film about travel across America, including a pilot’s eye view of both the landing and take-off. Stewardesses assist visitors. and travel literature is provided in seat pockets located in front of the passengers. This on-ground pre-conditioning of prospective passengers cannot help but stimulate their desire for air travel. Conservative American estimates fore-cast two million actual visitors to the Astrosphere and ten million people who will have seen it.

The Astrosphere is the largest dual-walled, air-inflated unit ever built. It has aproximately 6000 square feet of usable space, over half of which is used for visitor traffic flow and exhibit areas. Carried in four forty-foot vans, it can be set up in three hours.

The interior view shows the 128-seat theater in the center of the Astrosphere.

The cutaway model shows the plan of the Astrosphere. In the area outside the theater are exhibits by American Express Company, Hertz Rent-a-Car, Holiday Inns of America, and Texaco. all showing the relationship of these companies to travel. Domestic travel is promoted in keeping with the Discover America program established by President Johnson. Flags surrounding the sphere are of the 50 states.

The American Airlines example of marketing at shopping centers to reach the consumer directly will inevitably be further developed by other companies. Shopping centers may soon become small world’s fairs as marketers continue to cut the distance, be it physical or conceptual, between their product and the consumer.

– “Point Of Purchase Design,” by Harvey Offenhartz (1968)

More about Castle Films:

Monsters From The Vault

Robbies Reels

FDR Newsreel

Cover examples from POV Online

Wikipedia

Modern Mechanix

Campbell Films

Long since eaten I’m afraid, and their decedents relegated to the evil confines of some factory farm hidden out of site up in the hills somewhere. The only time they get their pictures in a magazine these days is if they’re lucky enough to have some PETA spy smuggle a camera into one of their torture sessions.

I joke, of course. The Arizona National Livestock Show continues to this day, going strong, “supporting youth and promoting livestock and agriculture since 1948.” In fact, you can go see it this year from December 28 through January 1 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. Bring your camera (hidden or otherwise).

But if you can’t muster the effort to head down there (I know I can’t), you can check out these glorious pix from yesteryear — the October 1968 edition of “Arizona Highways” magazine, to be specific.

Albums like arranger Joe Scott’s “”Motion Pictures: The NOW Generation” also brought added grease to the wheels, helping to point Middle America down unfamiliar roads and smoothing the path at the same time. Appropriately lush and stately-of-pace, with just a touch of electric grit, Joe’s album offers listener a nice pat on the back for being so musically adventurous. Which is to say, the whole thing goes down like the average late-sixties nightly network news broadcast theme.

The album kicks off with a glossy reading of The Band’s “The Weight,” and includes driving, uptempo detective-show takes on “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” and “Mrs. Robinson. The rest of the album is filled with alternately shimmering and brooding big orchestra arrangements of such “now” filler as “Midnight Cowboy,” “Goodbye Columbus” and “Come Saturday Morning.” My personal favorite track is a version of “Born To Be Wild” that’s just dying to be carved up into dope samples.

I don’t know much about this album or Joe Scott. The internet has not been much help either, telling me only that the album can be purchased for collectors prices and that the name “Joe Scott” is quite common. Fair enough. I can’t do anything about the latter, but as to the former, I might be able to save you 35 bucks. That is, provided you don’t mind that my rip is from a non-shrink-wrapped copy.
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