April 18, 2011

The Maxell blow-away guy

Ed McCabe Collection, Series II: Box 2, Folder 8.

The copy for the beloved Maxell “blow-away guy” ad (ca. 1979) was composed by Ed McCabe.

I cannot count how many times I tore through this sparse bachelor pad on packages of XLII tapes. The translation to TV (here, courtesy of YouTube) isn’t quite the same, since however loud-sounding “Ride of the Valkyries” may be, it cannot be as powerful as the imagined decibels conveyed by the print ad, with tie and lampshade frozen permanently in full blow-back amid gusts of high-fidelity.
©