Welcome to our third installment. We are posting a series of images/ads from the period before electronic media, when cameras shot film and print advertising was king, along with the stories behind them. We hope you enjoy this retrospective.
Tom Smith and Mike Marino, of Wyse Advertising, approached us about shooting an ad for Industry Week magazine titled, “Freight Cars Used To Get Loaded Here.” They wanted the model to portray a homeless person who appeared intoxicated and lying in squalor.
We found the perfect location in an area behind the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland.
The wardrobe was sourced from Goodwill but still needed a little something to give that worn-out dirty appearance. To achieve the look we were after, we tied the clothing to the tire of a car and drove through the streets and mud.
The model, it turns out, was the superintendent of a nearby apartment building. Once he was dressed in the worn-out clothing and had a little grease and dirt applied to his face and hands, he looked every bit the part of our homeless, down and out subject.
Upon arrival at the location on the morning of the shoot, there was still some snow on the ground which the art director did not want to see. We shoveled the snow out of the scene as best we could and covered what we couldn’t remove with cat litter to help it blend in.
This image is the award-winning result.
