Summary

A 16mm motion film featuring a short television advertisment for the Kodak Retina 1B camera. The commercial was produced by Cambridge Film Productions for Kodak Australasia. It features a couple packing for a holiday. When the man can't find his camera, his wife, Daisy, procures it from a lunch box. She didn't want it stolen because it made her look younger. The man then has a piece-to-camera, joking about Daisy ('You know, SOMETIMES she makes SENSE") and explaining the benficial technical features of the camera and his surprise that it only cost him 40 pounds and 8 shillings. At the end of the commercial the man says 'It's made by Kodak, so even Daisy knows it's good" which links this advertisement, humourously, to a broader campaign of television and print advertisments with the catch phrase 'And it's made by Kodak, so you know it's good", which stressed the quality of Kodak cameras. While Daisy stresses that the camera can make her look young and that Kodak slides are "pretty", the persuasive message is really aimed at a male audience, at a male photographer. Unlike other Kodak advertisements, this lists technical details of the lens and its German manufacture.

This film is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

Description of Content

Television commercial advertising the Kodak Retina 1B camera. It begins in a bedroom with a couple packing and man searching through a suitcase looking for his camera. When he asks his wife, she is confused at first but then procures the camera from a picnic basket. She explains she put it there because it made her look years younger and she walks off screen. The man speaks to camera about the features of the Retina 1B and the commercial closes with a shot of the camera, carry case and price.

Physical Description

16mm cellulose acetate motion picture film; Black and White; Television commercial (TVC); Optical sound; 1960; A POTENTIAL DUPLICATE OF THIS FILM IS STORED IN THE MIDDLE TRAY OF BOX L1231840. Originally housed in a white and green box with Cambridge Film & TV Productions branding on it. Film was wound on a red plastic reel.

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