Vintage style Puerto Rico Adversting

Britton and I have been watching the show “Mad Men” lately and have found it pretty interesting to see the changes in what was normal from the early 60s to now. The most noticeable of course is the rampant smoking and drinking in the office and really anywhere, but also the sexism, racism, and lack of safety for kids (in one scene the mother has a minor accident and the small children are flung into the floor of the car, in another the kids are playing around with plastic bags over their heads). However, while there are a lot of things that have changed as a result of research, laws and social norms evolving, some of this period still seems magical to me. The books When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson and Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner were all set in that fascinating time.

So, anyway, when I saw that the Puerto Rico Tourism Company was modernizing an advertising campaign that connected both the Mad Men style advertising with a refreshed artistic look at Puerto Rico, I was intrigued. Apparently, as the NY Times article relates, a young “unknown” photographer by the name of Elliott Erwitt was sent to Puerto Rico in the late 50’s/early 60’s to cover an ad campaign about Puerto Rico for the Madison Avenue Company Ogilvy and Mather. Now, 50 years later, he has gone back to do it again as a well-established and esteemed photographer. The website: http://www.seepuertorico.com has many of the photographs as well as video of his time there. While it is mainly centered on the San Juan area, I think it is a beautiful portfolio of how much things have changed and how much they remain the same.