John Akehurst and The Carousel

John Akehurst’s original collages always remind me of that scene in Mad Men when Don Draper pitches ‘The Carousel’ to Kodak. Like much of the show it’s worth re-watching, and this transcription won’t do Jon Hamm’s performance justice.

“Technology is a glittering lure, but there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash. If they have a sentimental bond with the product.

My first job I was in-house at a fur company. This old pro copy writer. A Greek named Teddy.

And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is “new.” It creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion.

But he also talked about a deeper bond to a product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate but potent. Switch it on. Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means, ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.

This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards. And it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called ‘The Wheel.’ It’s called ‘The Carousel’. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around and back home again. A place where we know we are loved.”