It’s back!
This contest ran a couple of years ago, and it was a lot of fun, so let’s do it again.
Here’s the concept: find a vintage ad, and then create a product from a created world – it can be from a book, movie, TV, etc. It doesn’t have to be science fiction; you could go with a fantasy world, an alternate reality, whatever. The only proviso is that it has to have been written by someone else, so none of your own bizarre fictional futures. Here’s a couple I mocked up, based on the grim post-apocalyptic THE ROAD and the less-grim, but still post-apocalyptic THE POSTMAN (both books worth reading, btw):
It doesn’t have to be post-apocalyptic, by the way. If you’re more of an optimistic Star Trek kind of person, then I’m happy to see Oil of Olay ads featuring Warf, scotch ads with Scotty, or ear-hair trimming systems endorsed by Quark.
Here are the finalists from last time to help you get the idea.
Or you can in a gallery here“>check out the gallery for this year’s contest is here.
How to enter:
- create your masterpiece (a jpg, png, pfd or gif, please)
- post it to your blog, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous ”¦ or just email it to me
- let me know about it (including the work it’s based on), in the comments, by email (markarayner-at-gmail-dot-com) or Twitter (@markarayner) — let me know who to credit, and include your website if you watn
- they will go in a gallery here, and I’ll update the blog periodically too
- do it by midnight, Monday October 4th
- wait for the aplomb and/or ridicule of your peers
- I’ll narrow it down to a shortlist of five, and then everyone can vote on those.
The Prizes:
The winner chooses from:
- a walk-on appearance in the novel I’m currently working on (this will be the last chance for a year at least)
- a tshirt from either of my shops, CafePress or Wordans
The runner up:
- whatever the winner didn’t choose
All five finalists:
- a copy of Marvellous Hairy (or The Amadeus Net, if you’ve already bought it)
All entrants:
- $2 off a copy of Marvellous Hairy from Amazon.com.
Some things that may help
Vintage Ads at Livejournal
Vintage Ads search results at Flickr
Go be awesome!
A walk-on appearance in a novel – hysterical !
Also, I love that Baby Food add – “Now With More Baby” and if I post it on my blog I’ll surely give credit to SKWIB !!!
Lots of fun here from what I’ve seen 🙂
Looking forward to your entry — I’m sure you’ll come up with something great!
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Can it be kind of a stagger-on appearance?
Encouraged, in fact 🙂
Worf.
That is all.
I’ll let my crushing ignorance of Klingon grammar stand, so that makes sense. 🙂
Entry submitted via email.
Personal fav so far is Nikko Recruitment Poster. Beautiful.
[…] on how to enter are at the bottom of the gallery page or below, on The Skwib. You have until October 4th, so there’s still lots of […]
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[…] Author Mark Rayner is repeating his successful contest inviting entrants to design advertising posters in a retro style for products from fictional futures. The winner gets a “walk on” appearance in Rayner’s next book. (I think one of […]
I would love that Slurm ad, if not for the detestable typo in the headline. Everyone please spell check your entries!
Thank you, noun. I felt it would have been in poor taste to point it out, as I’m one of the finalists, but I agree.
…also see “hazardous” and “caffeine”, which leads me to believe perhaps not a native English speaker, so some leeway should probably be given. Still, spell check, yeah.