I’m a big fan of pulp novel covers from the 60’s and 70’s. They’re the perfect example of selling the sizzle rather than the steak. The book contents might consistently disappoint, but there was always the hope that the next one might live up to the erotic delights promised by its cover. An endless sequence of the triumph of hope over experience.
This example, courtesy of this tweet by the Pulp Librarian, features a severe looking nurse, a glimpse of stocking and a cane. Admittedly, a cane makes absolutely no sense for a nurse to be brandishing, but pulp illustrators never let a silly thing like logic get in the way of a sexy cover. As far as I can tell from the Wikipedia page on the novel itself, there’s also nothing in the book about nurses, corporal punishment or kink. Anyone buying this book based on the cover probably knew that was the case, but still let their little brain override the big one.
The Pulp Librarian Twitter account is one of the best!
Yes! It’s a lot of fun to see the old cover art. One of my favorites to dip into a browse through.
-paltego
This problem is still with us.
A few years ago, a consumer in the UK complicated to his local Trading Standards office about a premium rate Adult Entertainment phone number.
The number title was ‘Come Listen to me Moan’
The content was a wife complaining to her husband about shelves in the kitchen, not constructed as promised.
The client complained that ‘content did not match advertising’
Trading Standards dismissed his complaint and opined that content exactly matched advertising, it was just a different sort of moaning – but still moaning, nevertheless.
Ah! Everything has changed but nothing is different …
That’s funny. I’m always astonished that premium rate numbers continue to exist in the age of internet and camgirls, but apparently they do. I see advertisement for them on late night cable TV all the time. They’re advertising strategy isn’t quite as clever or duplicitous as the example you gave, but I’m sure the girls in the ads are definitely not the ones picking up the phones 🙂
-paltego
Agh! Typo in line 2.
The phrase should be ‘complained to’
Sorry …
I got fooled by this book back in the 70s. As it happened although it wasn’t what I expected it wasn’t a bad book. Simon Raven is actually a fairly well known book and screenplay writer having written Edward and Mrs Simpson for ITV and been credited with additional dialogue on a James Bond film.
I’d never heard of him, but when I wrote the post, I did do a bit of background research. As you say, he does seem to have been a fairly talented writer and more well known than I would have guessed.
It sounds like in your case the cover art did the trick of making the sale and also gave you a decent read – albeit without the dominant nurses you might have hoped for! I’d guess that was exactly what the publisher was hoping for, so a good job all around there 🙂
-paltego