Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter - Philately are GO!

Even 54 years after this ad was printed in Fortune magazine, it's still an uphill battle to get small businesses to get off the stamp train. But now it's Stamps.com making the big anti-stamp push. I wonder how Pitney-Bowes feels about that these days?

Anyhoo, observe this horrible vignette that must surely give philatelists nightmares. So many stamps neglected! Heavens, no! This illustration is heavily photo-referenced, which means the artist hired models, posed them in the exact positions he/she wanted, and used those photos as "reference" to paint the final art. How do we know this? Because time is money, and when you can show your client pictures of posed models, and let them choose the pose from a stack of fifty before you even begin the painting, that's time and money saved.

Now here's a weird thing. Why add the distracting detail of the ring on that guy's hand? As a general rule, you only want to add details that help sell the product or idea. What's this ring doing for anybody? It must be like the eyeball ring in the 1982 cinematic suppository, Beastmaster. Clearly, the forgetful goof is a unwitting pawn for the Postmaster General, who was obviously spying on the situation in an attempt to preserve the government's stranglehold on the lucrative postal business! Stamp collectors have never been so thrilled, and are reaching for their inhalers as we speak.

Jesse Monrow Donaldson, as portrayed by Maax,
as portrayed by Rip Torn, in the roles of a
lifetimes.

In 1949, the U.S. Postmaster General was Jesse Monroe Donaldson, who was also... A HA! A freemason!!!!! Also, he was from Shelbyville, Illinois, and THAT is 210 miles south of Chicago, which is where we are headquartered, here in GO! Tower! A HA! Coincidence??? Of course. Don't be an idiot.

These particular models are so carefully overposed that, if there were emmys given out for ad illustration reference modeling, they would still win nothing. But camp is what we want from corny old 1949. So, allow the Phil Are GO! Graphic Blandishment and Photoshoppery Brigade to lift the useable portions of this illustration for your continual repurposement. You're welcome! All personnel to the helipad. Incoming Graphic Gift, stat!

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This image is perfect for any occasion where you're finding out what you owe... usually because you neglected routine preventative maintenance on something that now needs replacement. The gent in the glasses could be a mechanic or a plumber or a gynecologist or a physicist, "I'm sorry Mrs. Fishwhistle, but this is what happens when you don't mind your gluons." It's up to you! You're welcome!

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