Pitched Unfairly

Sterling Cooperfor Eastman Kodak

Kodak built a wheel. We'll sell a time machine.

New York · Thanksgiving week, 1960

home, Thanksgiving '60

01 / The shift

Technology is glittering. Nostalgia goes deeper.

Everyone in 1960 is selling new. New is an itch: it fades the moment it is scratched. Nostalgia is a bond, and it doesn't fade.

  • Jets
  • Satellites
  • Push buttons
  • This year's model

nos·tal·gia

noun, from the Greek

nóstoshomecoming álgospain

The ache to go back to a place where you were loved.

coined in 1688, by a Swiss doctor

02 / Winners and losers

Losers sell the machine. Winners sell the memory.

Sells the machine

Loses
  • A spec sheet for a headline
  • A new model every year, to scratch the itch again
  • Admired on the shelf, forgotten in the closet

Sells the memory

Wins
  • The customer's own family on the screen
  • A name that means something
  • Worth more every year it's used

03 / The promised land

Every living room becomes a screening room.

Film
Shot to be shown, not left in a drawer.
Holidays
Every one ends with the lights down.
The album
Four feet wide, on the living room wall.

04 / The magic gift

It's not called the Wheel. It's called the Carousel.

Same machine, same three facts. The name decides whether they read as specs or as gifts.

Kodak introduces

The Carousel

Every summer comes back around.

  • Round tray Eighty moments, kept in a ring.
  • Gravity feed Each moment drops into place, right on cue.
  • Push button Press once to go forward. Press again to go back.

Reads as: specsReads as: gifts

05 / The demo

Press the button and it takes you back.

8 / 8Home, Thanksgiving 1960

06 / Proof

The proof was the room: Kodak cancelled its other meetings.

The room meter

SoldKodak cancels its other agency meetings.

07 / The record

The real Carousel shipped in 1961 and stayed on sale for 43 years.

43 Years in production,
1961 to 2004
  1. 1961 The Carousel 550 ships Round tray, 80 slides, gravity feed
  2. 1965 The patent is granted Kodak designer David E. Hansen
  3. 2004 Kodak stops making it October, after 43 years
  4. 2007 "The Wheel" airs on AMC The pitch everyone remembers

08 / Objections

Four reasons to keep calling it the Wheel. None of them hold.

Isn't "the Wheel" clearer? Clear says what it is. Carousel says why you want it. The box can still say "holds 80". Keep both
We're an engineering company. Lead with the engineering? Lead with the family; prove it with the engineering. One line of specs, last. Specs last
Isn't nostalgia a little soft for a machine? The machine is how people get back to those moments. The feeling is what it sells. That's the job
Can we still change the name? It hasn't shipped. A name is cheap to change before launch and permanent after. Before launch

09 / Next steps

Sign Monday, and the Carousel ships in 1961.

1 of 6 steps done

an owner and a date on every line