Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Vintage Ad (1970s): THE PIPE

In checking back through my archives, I discovered that I have not yet posted a vintage ad for THE PIPE. Please forgive me for what I am about to do.


click to enlarge

So there it is. The most egregious, atrocious, horrific excuse for a pipe that ever existed. The ultimate gimmick pipe. THE PIPE was made from phenolic resin, with an inner bowl liner of pyrolytic graphite. It was available in every color imaginable, and many more hues unlike any known colors of the normal spectrum (avocado green?--hoark!). THE PIPE could be cleaned with soap and water. Or you could just remove the stem and blast it clean with a blow torch, since it could survive temperatures at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

I don't have an exact year for this ad, but with the Fillmore poster font at the top and the "what's your sign" theme, I think we can safely say: 1973, about 8 minutes before disco was invented.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Ah, I can just picture myself in 1973, sitting in the faux leather and brass hotel bar, wrapped in a brown polyester leisure suite, white Quiana shirt and white patent leather high heel wing-tips, sucking on my English Blue Dublin, surrounded by a cloud of smoke from my Amphora Rich Aromatic, ogling the hot chicks and nursing a Harvey Wallbanger... occasionally smoothing down my mustache and jingling my gold ID bracelet back into place with a shade of my wrist every time I put down my glass... tapping my foot to The Commodores... well, actually not.
    That's the most offensive collection of smoking hardware I've seen in a while. Then again, they were pretty offensive times.
    Thanks for sharing, I needed the chuckle!

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  3. meant "shake of my wrist". gotta start proof reading this stuff better.

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  4. I tried emailing this ad to you, but it bounced back, you can pick it up here. Enjoy.

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/3199524739_4a4c736f87_b.jpg

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  5. Thanks, I'll add it to my collection.

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  6. Graphite bowl? I wonder how that would taste.

    Wow, just, wow!

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  7. well graphite is just carbon, so well insulated with no residual flavor I imagine

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  8. Hey just cleaned up "The Pipe" that my neices picked at a flea market. Bright orange you know.
    Looks like it was heavily used,plugged right up with cake and tar. It cleaned up very nice with alcohol. Didn`t now what is was made till I googled it and came up with this site. So Graphite eh! I`ll assume its a wet smoke as there is no absorbtion,I wonder if a can stick a medico filter in it ? It would have to be cut to fit. And I wonder if i can use paint remover to get the orange paint off ? It would look cool if it was all glossy black.
    Any info on these graphit "the pipe" would be great !
    Luke.

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  9. Just go to

    http://www.thepipe.info/

    to learn more than you ever wanted to know about THE PIPE.

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