Moog Music "Happy Birthday Bob Moog (May 23)" advertisement/message from page 65 in the June 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.
I thought I would get an early start on Bob Moog's birthday week by posting this sweet, sweeeeeeet and fun full-page find on the Monday prior to his b-day, but I'm already seeing other early celebrations starting to pop up. Excellent!
For example, Moog Music Inc. appeared in my Facebook feed this morning with this awesome time-lapse of a mural painting on the side of the Moog factory.
The Bob Moog Foundation's Web site also has a banner recognizing Bob's birthday suggesting you head down to the Early Girl Eatery where 20% of sales benefit the BMF. Looks yummy. And kinda makes me wish I lived near by.
And I'm sure this is only just the beginning. Throughout the week I'll be watching Moog Music, the Moog Foundation, and of course, MATRIXSYNTH, for more fun and interesting celebrations.
I was actually a little hesitant to post this advertisement. Let me explain...
On the surface we have a nice friendly 1979 birthday message to Bob Moog from all his friends at Moog Music. Sure, no colour. Well, okay, in fact it looks a little dreary. Okay, okay - *a lot* dreary. But yah - definitely a simple, fun and positive message.
Except that according to Wikipedia and a few other sources, Bob had left the company a year before. As much as I'm a glass-is-totally-full (half full with water, half full with air) optimist that believes that the words on the page were true feelings from those that had worked with Bob Moog and probably really missed his presence at the company, a teeny weeny tiny part of my gut was telling me that this advertisement could also have been a simple marketing attempt by Moog Music to keep Bob Moog's name personally associated with the company after he left.
The last time I posted a more personal Moog advertisement from 1977 - "A blunt and totally biased viewpoint on electronic synthesizers by Bob Moog" - I was quick to learn from Michelle Moog-Koussa (real-life Minimoog!) about some of the inner politics of Moog at the time. Boy - did I call that one wrong. Well, I didn't want to make that mistake twice. :)
And interestingly, this rather stark ad actually appeared just prior to two of the more interesting (and favorite) Moog ads of all time - "You know what this is" from July 1979 and "When you've got the sound" from September 1979. In a lot of ways, this birthday ad/message actually fits in quite well this this bunch.
So, just to be safe, I contacted Michelle to let her know I was going to post this little ditty during the Bob Moog birthday celebrations this week and she assured me it was fine.
*Phew* :D
And, hey - who says good, fun, positive messages can't also play a role in good marketing anyways? Very similar words (and more!) have been used to describe Bob Moog himself.
So remember - stay positive this week and keep your eye out for more fun celebrations, like this one last year from Moog Music in the form of a video by Moog engineer Steve Dunnington, who overdubbed six tracks of Minimoog Voyager to create this:
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