ARP "Play the hell out of them" endorsement ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

ARP "Play the hell out of them" 2-page endorsement advertisement from page 16 and 17 in Contemporary Keyboard July 1977.

Gotta love the art of name-dropping. ARP wasn't the only ones doing it. Every company tried their best to associate their products with talented and famous musicians:

• Garfield Electronics dropped the likes of Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones
• E-mu thew out names such as Daryl Dragon and Frank Zappa
• Mellotron makes mention of Genesis and Larry Fast
• Moog have included the names Benny Goodman and Miles Davis in ads, and, heck, they were in the enviable position to even name-drop Bob Moog himself
  

Sometimes the name dropping wasn't really official. For example, in the Moog Satellite reference sheet that mentions Goodman and Davis, I doubt these artists are endorsing the instrument. Instead, Moog is just strategically making the connection between the artist, the instrument, and most importantly, the reader.

But, let's face it, ARP was the ultimate name-dropper. It was a legit part of their ongoing marketing campaigns.

To give you an idea of how ingrained endorsements were to ARP, you just have to look at ARP's Wikipedia page and that long list of "Notable Clients" that today's Wikipedia contributors have made the effort to include there. Other companies like Moog had many notable clients back in the day as well, but it just wasn't as in-yer-face. The result was that it didn't become such a big part of what made Moog who they were, and so Wikipedia contributors have not made the same effort to include a big long client list on Moog's Wiki page. Hmmmm - not sure that thought translated from my brain to the post well... hope it made sense.

ARP takes this strategic name-dropping to the next level with this ad - and doesn't try and hide the fact these artists aren't necessarily endorsing their products. In fact, they have the balls to make note of it right in the ad title:

Not all of these artists "endorse" ARP synthesizers, they just play the hell out of them.

Awesome. And, to really make sure ARP is associated with the rocker elite, they throw in a naughty word while they are at it.

Just to be clear, I'm not coming down on ARP for this marketing tactic. In fact, just the opposite. That is an impressive list of musicians using ARP products, and gives ARP a legit reason to include this tag line at the bottom of the second page:

ARP. The number one sound around the world.

Arguable, but I'm a little biased towards Moog.

The design of the ad itself is also impressive with the way the first page looks like an album cover with a record sliding out onto the second page. It's a nice effect and ties in well with the musician's list.

Hmmm. Seems I've run out of things to say. Good thing too, because I'm on vacation, and just got invited to a weiner roast. Yum. I hope there's a frisbee.

End note: whenever I see that photo of Captain (from the Captain and Tenille), I can't help but think of Hefner wearing his captain's hat. Is that wrong?

Oberheim 1976 family of products, Contemporary Keyboard 1976

Oberheim advertisement of its family of products including Oberheim Eight Voice, Four Voice, Two Voice and Expander Module synthesizers, and Mini-Sequencer and 144 Note Digital Sequencer from page 9 of Contemporary Keyboard magazine August 1976.

Oh, hello. Did I just walk in on an Oberheim family photo shoot? I think I'm dreaming.

This Oberheim advertisement is fabulous for a number of reasons.

1. It contains photos of numerous Oberheim gear from 1976.
   
2. It has historical value because it tells us when Oberheim started shipping gear - November 1975.
   
3. It name drops more famous musicians than your average ARP ad (although a future ARP blog post will show that Alan R. Pearlman is still the king...)
4. Did I mention all the gear?

Oberheim did another family photo a decade later - I still like to flip back and forth between the two ads to see just how far things have come in ten years. And I think it even beats Roland's family photo ad from 1978.

While doing some research for this post, I Googled 'oberheim history' and came across this 2008 Tom Oberheim interview on Synthopia that is over two and a half hours long. I'm afraid I never got any further in my research. :o)

ARP musician endorsement ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

ARP musician endorsement ad from inside back cover of Contemporary Keyboard magazine February 1977.

As mentioned in my last post, I'm kind of playing ARP catch-up. Also, as I mentioned in my last post, ARP was (in)famous for name-dropping. And, while doing research for an ARP 2600 ad to be posted in the near future, I found out why. It seems Alan R. Pearlman gave at least a few well-known musicians ARP gear in exchange for their professional endorsement. I'm sure they weren't the only company to do it, but ARP sure did get some good mileage out of the deal.

Take this fabulous ad, for example. I'm not going to pretend I know all the musicians, but one does stand out for me - The Who's Pete Townshend. And, according to thewho.net, the photo of him featured in the ad above was used as far back as 1972, including this ARP ad from Rolling Stone magazine. Another great 1975 ARP ad is also featured on this site.

I'm sure there are interesting stories behind each musician's photo included in the ad - but I'll leave that to others with much more knowledge than myself. Feel free to comment...