Thursday, April 21, 2011

Model Nancy Toner

Some print ads leap out at you, as this one did for me back in the eighties.


First of all, it's an ad for pantyliners. Kind of embarrassing to the male eye, to say the least. But while most ads for feminine products of this sort use anonyomous models, this one names the model in the question it poses: "Why does a model like Nancy Toner choose Lightdays, the Comfort-Design Pantyliner?"

I was of the wrong sex to ponder the answer. Indeed, I was asking a different question: "Who's Nancy Toner?"

This is Nancy Toner.

She's a model who was active in the eighties and was represented by the HV agency in New York.

The ad she appeared in was effective because it tied a name as well as a face to a product not usually brought up in polite company. It made the task of selling such a product an honest and direct one by presenting Nancy Toner as a woman no different from any other.

So why did I feature the ad? Nancy Toner obviously wasn't embarrassed to appear in it. Why should I be embarrassed to show it as an example of her portfolio? :-)

No comments: