#mark hallet

[vermilllionsands]

Mark Hallet

[romigodon]

The Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, TX had a really cool exhibit on “Animals in Advertising.”

Out of the way first, yeah it’s a pretty biased exhibit.

1. It’s Dr. Pepper owned products only. That’s a given.

2. Its only focus is how awesome and creative it is to use animals to advertise. As a result, it’s neatly walks around the ethical issues of live animals and also any issues with advertising in general.

Despite this, it was pretty fascinating. Obviously, there’s a neat area on how Dinosaurs have been used in advertising. They highlighted an old “win a solid gold dinosaur” campaign ran years ago. If you know me, you know I love me some vintage depictions of paleontology. This stuff scratches the right itch!

The eagle eyed among you notice that Paleoartist Mark Hallet’s T. rex design is front and center on a very late 90s Y2K advertising pitch also starring an astronaut and a VR headset. Hallet’s work was ALL over 80s-90’s dinosaur books and posters. If you ever saw the Dinosaur edition of ZooBooks, then you’ll know exactly what I mean.

If I was comfortable discussing it, a deep dive on how the wilds of Africa and Asia, and the colonialist viewpoint of how these places must be explored via pith-helmed white adventurers, was used so effectively in advertising through the 20’s-1970’s, may prove interesting. Take a look at Dr. Pepper’s West African Lion adorned “King of Beverages” or the equally as interesting 1960’s 7UP “Fresh Up with 7UP!” use these motifs as selling points rather effectively.

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

painting by Mark Hallett

[dryptosaurus]

Seismosaurus by Mark Hallett