Yellow Pages ads (1966)
“Wear out the Yellow Pages instead of yourself.
Let your fingers do the walking. Shop the Yellow Pages first.”
Britannic Bold (Stephenson Blake, 1905) in use for a series of ads for the Yellow Pages by Bell System from 1969. This was shortly before the updated Bell logo by Saul Bass was introduced (see the pitch video for the redesign, especially from 11:57).
The ads from this campaign don’t use the “Walking Fingers” logo, which was designed by Henry Alexander for the New England Telephone Company in 1962, and soon became the national trade mark for the Yellow Pages of every phone book. Instead, they show an open phone book with “Yellow Pages” in Univers and a receiver on top. In some ads, the walking fingers are present in the form of photography, though, and also appear in the slogan “Let your fingers do the walking.”
“Sure, you could live without the Yellow Pages.
(or without newspapers, or automobiles, or telephones, or clocks.)
Find it here first – fast. Action-People do.”
“There is something you won’t find in a copy of the Yellow Pages.
(Cobwebs.)
Action-People find it here first – fast. Let your fingers do the walking.”
“The Yellow Pages are unnecessary.
(Like water, and sleep, and food, and love.)
Find it here first – fast. Action-People do.”
