Thursday, September 13, 2007

Credit Card Rings (1964)


The May 24, 1964 New York Times Magazine ran this ad from Sheaffer Pens. Marty Z was kind enough to send this my way, and mentions that it may not be too far off from the microprojectors featured at CES this year.

The text of the ad appears below. Notice the fine print of the ad which tells you to "Ask for your copy of 'What will it be like - the 21st Century?' with descriptions of inventions of the future." I'd love to see that brochure.
Think back to 1964, the year you received that extraordinary gift, your Sheaffer LIFETIME Pen - the year you started enjoying guaranteed writing performance for life.

Right away you liked that 14K gold point - the way it glided over paper, the way it captured your kind of writing. And still does, because inlaying adds strength to this point.

You enjoyed that turned-up tip right from the start, too. It still makes your writing feel more natural. Just as every other feature still delivers the best performance possible - the same performance you admired the first time you touched this amazing point to paper. Can a pen give more than writing pleasure for life?

See also:
Online Shopping (1967)
Prelude to a Great Depression (The Chronicle Telegram, 1929)

4 comments:

Nancy Toby said...

Ha! The only time I use a pen any more is making my grocery shopping list.

Mark Plus said...

The credit card ring sounds like a plausible invention. As for fountain pens, CEO's still use them as status symbols. The science fiction up to about that time still had characters in the paleo-future 21st Century using slide rules, film cameras, firearms and cigarettes, so postulating 21st Century fountain pens doesn't sound that weird.

Anonymous said...

CEOs aren't the only ones who still use fountain pens. Used properly, they still provide a better, more consistent image.

As for credit card rings ... unless they're keyed to biometric data, can you say "amputation" anyone? As in, "give me the ring or I'll cut off your finger!" I'll stick to a card in my wallet or the dohickey on a keychain, thanks.

Anonymous said...

Darn. It looked like some kind of primitive RFID technology in action. Turns out just to be a projected image, so you can manually write down the number. Oh well...