Comments on: What’s Wrong with This Picture?

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:07:24 +0000

The word is not “raw,” it is “rare!” I see the golden brown crust on the roasted meat’s outer surface, rendered in gray on in the black and white illustration. The chef is obviously about to carve out 4 oz portions to serve to the large crowd lined up just outside of the frame, large families who have trekked out across the desert hills of southern California to fed by the beneficence of the S.O. (now Chevron) pesticide and fertilizer subsidiary, maker of the Ortho brand products that we all consume (in moderation, of course). No, there is nothing out of the ordinary here.

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:39:19 +0000

Another Standard Oil angle comes to mind from Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water. In early 20th Century California, agricultural was a function of pumping aquifers which was a way of turning oil into food. Dam and aqueduct projects like the Central Valley Project were still in process in 1958. Good synergy to have a chemical division that is also producing fertilizer. As Wallace Stegner said, “Water. It’s about water.” Also, Standard Oil itself owned 80,000 acres in California’s Central Valley.

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:24:40 +0000

This kind of makes me want a steak or a roast dinner. Haven’t had either for a long time!

(Loved your intro to the picture, btw.)

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:26:02 +0000

Did cattle really grow by over 50% in size in those 10 years? Well, for my part, I grew about 10 times my 1957 weight by 1967. Must have been all that beef. Good thing that slowed down.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:01:06 +0000

Makes me wonder where the BP ad for seafood is running in Gulf Coast states!

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:43:20 +0000

To summarize the above comments…
* Oil logo on meat ad
* Raw meat that is supposed to be cooked
* bragging up the chemicals in the feed
* And who names a subsidiary “spray-chemical”

I vote for bringing Eliza R. Snow’s song back into vogue: “They are precious and they eat but a very little meat”

Whoever said obedience to the Word of Wisdom was compulsory missed the meat in winter and vegetables in season clauses.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:06:56 +0000

Your problem, Ardis, is you don’t remember the “LSD: Better living through chemicals” bumper stickers from the late 1960s!

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:14:58 +0000

Standard Oil of California is now Chevron. Would it be out of place to comment on Chevron’s current weird advertising?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:51:34 +0000

Same reaction here! I mean, no adwriter today would think of deliberately linking Standard Oil with food products! And oudenos, your comment is an even more graphic statement of my own reaction to those huge cuts and the amount of fat. Okay, so I know this isn't Mormon history, but it was fun to consider yet another difference between the world of our recent ancestors and our own world. (Message to 1958: No hard feelings, I hope, but no thanks!) And Mark, I certainly don't disagree with your acknowledgement of the benefits we derive from these things, or the severe difficulties we would face without them. I only intended to comment on the advertising techniques, and what points advertisers pitched to their consumers in 1958 vs. what they use to sell to us in 2012.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:23:26 +0000

This ad is much more in keeping with my idea of eating meat sparingly. Nothing like sitting down to a nice, juicy, 3-inch thick steak the size of a dinner plate. Who needs room for potatoes and veggies? Heck, who needs the plate? Pass the A-1!