Hello Squizzy,

Just a couple of points. The copy used in the flyer I could only find in a very
few newsprint advertisements. It was normal practice for companies to supply dealers
with sample copy - as suggestions only. My experience is that the majority of
dealers tailor-made their own ads. - which seemed to deal more with pricing
deals and trade-in offers. The copy in your flyer is not common.

What makes the copy in your flyer so unique is the headline:
"how you can be a magician and turn grass into lawn"

I have not found that combination of metaphor and slogan anywhere else.
It is the main reason why I feel Victa'a marketing department was not behind
the flyer. More likely, and arrangement between the Sales Department and
specific dealers at a local level.

From my perspective that headline could never appear in Victa ads.; because
the metaphor (the owner is a magician) undermines the otherwise powerful
slogan. We all know that magicians use tricks - it's not real. The power of
Victa's most famous slogan (still used today) is that the mower performed the magic;
not the owner. It is this anomaly that make your flyer more interesting and
... special ... which is a nice segway into the single model advertised.

I would like to say something about why the Standard was not included.
Victa described 1958 as "The real expansion year". In that year Victa had reached
a quarter of a million units in the field. In November of 1959, monthly sales
reached 25,306 units - a sales record. By 1960 the half a million mark was reached.

I guess you see the point being made - the Special was Victa's most successful
lawnmower of the 1950s. It was their best mower too. It was the norm that only a
single model would be illustrated in newsprint, whether it be by company or dealer.
Also, the Standard, having its origins in the first Victas, was by then looking
decidedly old. In the 1960s it would be freshened to become the 'Utility', a name
that would then be used generically to describe all basic side discharge mowers.
So... to me, the flyer addressed a specific local audience with a specific product.
Its main object was to get that demonstration - the foot on the lawn - by a single-
message flyer. It had to remain uncluttered and uncomplicated.

The penultimate point I make is that Victa changed its direction in advertising in the
late 1950s. It appears to me that what it said in its own advertising was much more
refined than what it may have 'suggested' to its dealers. For example, in 1958,
typical company headlines included: "A smoother cut ... neater lawn"; "Keep a showpiece
lawn"; "Summer weekends are too precious to waste".

The final point is that the release of the Shearline for the 1960-61 season really
stood out as positive proof of how lawnmowers would be represented in the 1960s.
The emphasis was on sophistication - TV, jingles, jazz tracks, stylised fonts ...

It was about our ... laid-back lifestyle ... not the taming of our frontiers.
The rotary was no longer 'revolutionary': it was mainstream!

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Last edited by CyberJack; 21/03/15 08:03 AM. Reason: Updated content.