Throwback Thursday and Guessing 1995

This one is a kick! I guess it's from around '95, and it was at the annual PPA national convention, probably when it was still in Las Vegas. That's Wendy Saunders, me and Bambi Cantrell in the front row with Calvin Hayes, Clay Blackmore and "Big Daddy" Blair in the back.

I can't help but laugh over the back-story. Hasselblad's ad agency, Kalmar Ad Marketing, came up with a whole campaign centered around the words "Hot Stuff".  It was a great looking logo and even better embroidered. This also launched my secondary career as "Embroidery Boy". I was a legend at Lands End because I put the logo on just about everything.

I had this brilliant idea to sell the baseball hats at the convention, and I drafted five good friends for the "sales" force. Their job was to wander around the convention and sell hats.  I even had special bags made for the inventory they were carrying. Calvin's got one in his hand. I don't remember the parameters, but there was even a little trash talk with a contest to see who was going to sell the most.

When the smoke cleared, we gave away more hats than we sold.  I'm not sure anybody came back with much cash, even though the money was going to charity. I know Don Blair gave every one of his away and Calvin had to come back for an extra hat for a cute girl he met at the show. It was non-stop laughter, but it was a great looking hat, and I still have a couple I wear from time to time.

I loved putting the Hasselblad name on just about anything, including my final fiasco, a wetsuit for scuba diving. I had gone to the DEMA show and found a manufacturer with good quality who would put our name down the side of the suit and emboss the camera logo in the black rubber on the chest. Well, the first suits came with the name upside down, so it read "dalblessaH" when you were swimming. 

We got them to fix the suits, but they never sold and my theory that there were a lot of Hasselblad owners into scuba diving went up in smoke. I hung up my embroidery guns at the point, but not without a few laughs in the process. Also, I never said to our VP, Al Zimmerman, again, "Don't worry, they'll all sell. It'll be a self-liquidator!" I'm betting there's at least one wetsuit still in the Hasselblad warehouse!

So, now it's your turn. Take a few minutes and find your Throwback image for the day and share it. Even better, follow my suggestion on my blog post from earlier in the week and use the image as a post on your blog. It's a great way to educate your client on the value of prints and especially capturing memories.