Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The end of a cultural icon: Polaroid Film
Polaroid has struck a tear with Builders and Baby Boomers when they announced the stoppage of film production. Unless another company buys the rights to make the film, it will cease to exist after next year.
Myth Debunked: The camera did not get it's popular name from its early days, Polaroid "Land" Camera, because the reflection of water prevented developing the film. It's monacker was due to the fact that inventor Edwin Land developed the process to polarize light on film.
In the early 1960s Eastman Kodak discovered the advantages to marketing specifically to the growing baby boomer generation. The Brownie Starmite camera was an affordable way for the builder generation to introduce their children to photography. Polaroid answered in the following decade with “The Swinger”. Bikini-clad Ali MacGraw showed how much fun it was to have a fully developed picture in only seconds. Best of all it sold for only $19.95, making it one the most affordable cameras Polaroid had ever made.
In the 1990s Polaroid survived, much to the surprise of many analysts, serious financial problems and the advent of the digital camera age. However even the instantaneous nature of Polaroid film and cameras cannot compete with even more instantaneous digital photography.
Time marches on and a generation that already said goodbye to revolutionary technology like the Sony Betamax, Vegomatic, Seal-a-Meal, 8-Track tapes, and Commadore 64 will say goodbye once again.
Polaroid has struck a tear with Builders and Baby Boomers when they announced the stoppage of film production. Unless another company buys the rights to make the film, it will cease to exist after next year.Myth Debunked: The camera did not get it's popular name from its early days, Polaroid "Land" Camera, because the reflection of water prevented developing the film. It's monacker was due to the fact that inventor Edwin Land developed the process to polarize light on film.
In the early 1960s Eastman Kodak discovered the advantages to marketing specifically to the growing baby boomer generation. The Brownie Starmite camera was an affordable way for the builder generation to introduce their children to photography. Polaroid answered in the following decade with “The Swinger”. Bikini-clad Ali MacGraw showed how much fun it was to have a fully developed picture in only seconds. Best of all it sold for only $19.95, making it one the most affordable cameras Polaroid had ever made.
In the 1990s Polaroid survived, much to the surprise of many analysts, serious financial problems and the advent of the digital camera age. However even the instantaneous nature of Polaroid film and cameras cannot compete with even more instantaneous digital photography.
Time marches on and a generation that already said goodbye to revolutionary technology like the Sony Betamax, Vegomatic, Seal-a-Meal, 8-Track tapes, and Commadore 64 will say goodbye once again.
Play the Swinger commercial.
Labels: Baby-Boomer, Generation, News, Traditionalists, Video
¶ 2/13/2008
