Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Beauty of Retrospect: Sheila Johnson For Napier

One of the longest print ad campaigns in recent history was for Napier costume jewelry, in which the copy would describe its products mostly with rhyming comparative-degree adjectives ("Napier Is Prettier," et al.). The idea was to drive home the pronunciation of the word "Napier" - it's "NAY-pee-er," not "nay-pee-AY" - as much as it was to talk up the product. Sometimes base adjectives that happened to rhyme with "Napier" were also used. All sorts of models were featured in the ads.

I have to use the superlative degree, not the comparative, to describe one Napier model in particular. Because, of all the dreamy, lovely women featured in Napier print ads, Sheila Johnson was the dreamiest and loveliest of them all.

Here are ten - count'em, ten - of Sheila Johnson's print ads from that campaign. :-) (One has been featured here before, with the copy edited out.)





















Napier costume jewelry is more of a lot of things, but when Sheila Johnson modeled these bracelets, earrings, and necklaces, Napier was sexier. :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember her from boston massachussetts when she was in the window modeling for ann taylor stores on boylston street when she was young...

Steve said...

Cool, I wish I'd seen that! :-D

Anonymous said...

Sheila was breathtaking in Coming to America and she looks even more beautiful now. Napier couldn't have found a more jaw dropping model.