It's all so brown and black, wherever the eye falls. The former hue forms a solid backdrop. What shade of brown? Think 1965. Brown, brown--with an under-hue of rusty-orange--not the goldenrod-heavy french mustard one. (In 1965 in my mind's eye, there exists those two browns only.) A flock of females surrounds one guy, all of them wearing black (which is odd symbolism maybe). He's also in black or perhaps a quite dark charcoal suit and black tie, with a white dress shirt.
A Doncella sticks out of his stiff lips and from under his smiling, delightfully resigned, playing it cool as a cuke (or trying to) green eyes. Aren't you envious? Green mistletoe overhead. Christmas work party? Problematic. The women surround him, staring at his smoke. He looks a freshly groped subtle-bit of disheveled. Two women are on his right, three on his left, with the lowest on the loaded side scrunched-in toward under his tie's smaller than I'd have guessed knot. Nice placement. Natural... if such a thing could be said of this such a thing.
The full text runs: "This year create a mild sensation--give him Doncella cigars." That in black font and then continued in a manner much more like the other 1965 brown: " He may be mobbed by admiring senoritas (drawn to the mild Havana aroma like moths to a flame). But he probably won't mind." I'd like to take a moment to clearly state that Doncella cigars is not, nor ever was or will be, a sponsor of Kaplowitz Media. Of note, is that Groucho Marx advertised for Doncella. Of further note is that Marx always gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I hit on composition a tick already with the layout of las senoritas, but also, the whole thing is agonizingly off-center to his right. I get that, but what I don't get is why it's to the extent of chopping off a part of one gal on that side, and not the other. It's like walking into a TGI Fridays in 1999 and fighting the urge to make evened-out all the pictures hung purposefully-crooked in order to foster an environment of shenanigans and fun. OK, it's not that zanily bad.
Another note is that this picture being discussed is roughly only half of the ad. Surprise! (The top half.) We'll get to the other half in a tick. I still wanna linger. The cigar is lit, or more likely was lit, as there is no smoke but there is a small stack of ash. So what aroma, pray tell, are they pretending to so appreciate? And why would they be appreciating that aroma which doesn't exist and doing-so with their eyes? They all look at the cigar--not one acts as if her olfactory has been at all stimulated. What is this, amateur hour?
Anyway, that aforementioned block of text occupies the top half of the bottom half. The whole bottom half has a white background that makes it look as though all on it is floating in a sort of vacuous void. The thin horizontal brown line at the bottom ties it together only some. It should be thicker, but the real problem is that instead of letting the same colored line as the upper-half's backdrop tie it together, it's busted up by a red 'DONCELLA' in huge by comparison letters and then right after in black "Guaranteed by Player's" Oh, boy.
The twixt that is the product photo (still untethered on the white background) segment. That and some product copy. Three sizes and a box. The bands are the same DONCELLA red so that's nice. I don't like that they're still in their cellophane, though. Or that there is such a divide between halves. The box is a simple cabinet-style thing with more of that red reading "CORONETS" and some gold embellishments. This whole thing is sneaky subtly a hot mess of subdued all over the place stuff.
"Rolled in London from a blend of Havana leaf and other choice cigar leaf." is pitched in italics to the left of the photos. I suppose I can admire this as a decent ad, with a proper to those days hook, and a goodly amount of information. But wait a minute! To whom is this written? No woman shopping for her man, that's for sure. No man shopping for his buddy (he'd keep them and the senoritas for himself). No kids are liking the sound of this for their dad unless they're helping him shop for a new mom. It must be written for the purchaser--but then it makes no sense.
Are these women even Latinas? As far as a bit of framed wall-hanging vintage, this somewhat misses the mark on the first blush. On the second blush, it's not even in the ballpark, but maybe it is because it didn't come near hitting it out of the ballpark.
::: very :::
Parts were lightly edited 6/24 - Kap.