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February 16, 2022

"Blown Away Guy": The Most Iconic Music Image of All Time

 February 16, 2022     1980s, ads, event & history, music,
photography   
Maxell cassette tape in 1980 created the all-time iconic music image
that will last far into the future, the "Blown Away Guy."

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In the 1980s, Maxell became an icon of pop culture when it produced
advertisements popularly known as "Blown Away Guy" for its line of
audio cassettes. The campaign began as a two-page advertising spread
in Rolling Stone magazine in 1980. The photo shows a man sitting low
in a (Le Corbusier Grand Confort LC2) high armed chair in front of,
and facing, a JBL L100 speaker. His hair and necktie, along with the
lampshade to the man's right and the martini glass on the low table
to the man's left, are being blown back by the tremendous sound from
speakers in front of him -- supposedly due to the audio accuracy of
Maxell's product. The man is shown desperately clinging to the
armrests but defiantly looking ahead at the source of the music
through sunglasses, though calmly catching his drink before it slides
off the end table.

The ad campaign was conceived by Art Director Lars Anderson. Steve
Steigman was the photographer. Steigman wanted a male model with long
hair in order to show the effect of the wind, but when such a model
could not be found on the day of the shoot, they used the makeup
artist who was hired for the shoot, Jac Colello.

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Maxell "Blown Away Guy" advertisement for cassette tapes.

The same concept was used for television spots in 1981 which ran
throughout the 1980s. These commercials showed showed nearly the same
image as the print ad, but with the chair, a drink and nearby lamp
all being pushed away from the stereo by the strong force of the
sound waves. Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" was used for
music.

A separate ad was filmed for the United Kingdom, with musician Peter
Murphy of the group Bauhaus as the man in the chair, and "Night on
Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky as the music.


The "Blown Away Guy" image became quite popular, and has been copied
and parodied numerous times, including in the 1992 John Ritter film
Stay Tuned, in the 2005 episode "Model Misbehavior" of animated
sitcom Family Guy, and in the 2010 movie Jackass 3D.




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2 comments:

 1. [blank]
    AnonymousMay 15, 2022 at 1:36 AM

    Hell yea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
        Reply
 2. [blank]
    AnonymousMay 15, 2022 at 3:45 AM

    what a successful image

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
        Reply

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