OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Collectors Corner Collectables ADVERTISING FLYER - Victa 18 Special - c1959

Hi all, I have this flyer in my collection of Victa stuff, and was wondering if anyone knew anything about them?
I beleive it was circulated to homes with an offer of a demo, does anyone know anymore?? cheers Pete



DIMENSIONS: ...5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and the colour is orange , and I don't think that faded, it really has been well preserved

Hello Squizzy,

There are a couple of clues and things I could comment on.
However, I need more information.

[1] I cannot read the finer copy in the flyer.
[2] I take it the flyer has no info on the other side?
[3] Did you acquire this from a Melbourne source?

It may be that this information could help a better understanding here.

Cheers & thanks.
------------------------------
JACK.

hello Jack, thanks for help, The flyer is a single sided page printed on very light paper. I carnt remember where i got it from, but i've taken a close up of the fine print......hope you can read it, i've never seen one before. cheers pete

This is a Std Flyer given to Victa dealers as a handout to increase sales. Probably letter box drops, Shopping centres, shows and post.

Note the blank section at the bottom...This is where the dealer name and phone no would have been written or stamped locating the nearest Victa outlet to the letter drops location.
Victas main number is not on the sheet, so it almost certain its was specifically for dealer handouts...in exactly the same way companies still do today.

A rare survivor....How many people kept flyers? Not many! Most of mine never get into the house.

I dont know what else could be told? Circa 58-60 Would be the timeline for its issue.

Ive not seen this particular flyer, only later ones, including one for sheerline. Green on white, but similar.

A very rare item to have in your collection.
The only thing better was if it was dealer marked.

Thanks Blue, you're right about flyers not being kept, a very disposable item, this one's missed the drop somehow i'd say, as it's in such good nick, i'll hang it off the handlebars of mine for something different.

Hello Squizzy, Blue, ODK members and guests

This is a wonderful piece of ephemera. I love it!
These things are collectable because they were never expected to last. That it does not have a
dealer name stamped on it is a bit disappointing, but this takes nothing away from its fascination,
and probably explains why it survived � hidden away, perhaps, in some Cobram or Wagga Wagga dealer�s
dusty desk for decades.

I do not believe, at all, that this is a standard flyer given to Victa dealers.
There are too many inconsistencies for that. I do not doubt, though, that this was a Victa sourced
and financed flyer, specifically made for dealers in Victoria, ACT and NSW for a specific audience
and for a specific purpose. For me, this flyer is symbolic; in that it seems to encapsulate the
key features as to how lawnmowers were represented in the first decade of AUS rotaries.

Here are my thoughts:-

Dating � I think I can date this flyer to 1959-60. The first reference I have to Victa�s most famous slogan
�Turns Grass into Lawn� dates from early 1959. This flyer cannot predate that date. It could have been used
in 1960, but prior to the release of the Sheerline for the 1960-61 lawn mowing season. However, my best guess
is 1959 or early 1960 because of some of the key words in the copy...

�Let us demonstrate� - Many members would be unaware that demonstrating residential lawnmowers was
common practice in the 1950s. The ability of dealers to offer this greatly diminished as the 1960s progressed,
and as the public acceptance of the �rotary mower� became the norm, and as profit margins decreased as rotaries
became more affordable. The �no obligation to buy� inducement was almost universally used in conjunction with
the demonstration offer.

�How you can be a magician �� - This phrase and idea never appears in Victa advertising.
It is doubly complex when it is used with �turn grass into lawn�. The words �amazed� and �amazing�,
however, are typical Victa copy, dating back to 1953 when Merv Richardson himself would have written
his own advertising copy. The Victa is an �amazing mower�.

�Even blackberries� � This, for me, is a real clue that this was not mainstream Victa advertising.
In much Victa advertising in the 1950s, Victa made outrageous claims that their machines would cut
any height of grass were common. The one claim - that Victas would even mow blackberries - is found
in Victa ads from 1956 and 1957. It then disappears, not to be found again (except in your flyer),
and in some dealer advertisements in 1959 and 1960.

Copy Origin � This is a rare piece of Victa ephemera. I have not been able to find any Victa ads
that use the exact (or close) words. I have found a few dealer ads from 1959 and early 1960 that use
the almost exact wording from the copy. Here is a montage:-



That a number of dealers would use the exact wording is pretty conclusive that the copy source was Victa.
The mention of cutting blackberries, though, is area specific. Blackberry is considered a pest, and it
has infested most of Victoria, the A.C.T. and the coastal regions of NSW � suggesting that this claim
was used on the flyer to target people in infested areas in semi-urban or rural Australia. Flyers are
all about local communities and local connections.

Significance � This flyer seems to encapsulate what Victa - and the mower industry in general -
was about in the first decade of its life. The flyer uses Victa�s most famous and enduring slogan
right from its inception in 1959. It has Victa�s first stylised logo (dating from 1957); it has the
�Let Us Demonstrate� inducement, universally commonplace in the early days of rotary mower sales
[Mervyn Richardson from day 1 in his garage sold mowers this way]. It has the outrageous claims that
Victa could tame any jungle and destroy a noxious pest in its path. Any onlooker would be �amazed�
as it weaved its �magic�, transforming grass into lawn.

My final point is this. This flyer and a few types of ads from 1959 and 1960 would be the last time
�agricultural copy� would be used in lawnmower advertising. Post 1960 lawnmower advertising did not
make claims that domestic lawnmowers would cut any length of grass, weeds, jungle, and the like.
The focus in lawnmower design in the 1960s would be driven by the desire for new features and improved safety.
The much more civilised �horticultural copy� would become the norm in lawnmower advertising.

The genie had been tamed.

The rest is history.
-----------------------------------------------
JACK.

Thanks for the reply Jack, and yes I love it to.......things that where never intended to be kept, and the fact that it's model specific for the Victa 18 special is a bonus.
Those other ads you showed do seem to use the same copy, and offer a 'at home' demo also, so it would seem to me that the copy for the ad campaign was the same whether used in print media which the dealers organize or in the flyers which by the blank dealer stamp part, would seem to be supplied by Victa.
And the point you make about the 60's mowers being more about safety and features, as the mower bases became more skirted and the side shoot started to disappear, how could Victa still claim it could clear jungles???
Something I find a little interesting in talking about this flyer is, and excuse my ignorance here chaps, is this flyer includes only the special , however most other brochures and owners manuals i've got/seen of that period always seems to include the standard as well, any thoughts?? cheers pete

Hello Squizzy,

Just a couple of points. The copy used in the flyer I could only find in a very
few newsprint advertisements. It was normal practice for companies to supply dealers
with sample copy - as suggestions only. My experience is that the majority of
dealers tailor-made their own ads. - which seemed to deal more with pricing
deals and trade-in offers. The copy in your flyer is not common.

What makes the copy in your flyer so unique is the headline:
"how you can be a magician and turn grass into lawn"

I have not found that combination of metaphor and slogan anywhere else.
It is the main reason why I feel Victa'a marketing department was not behind
the flyer. More likely, and arrangement between the Sales Department and
specific dealers at a local level.

From my perspective that headline could never appear in Victa ads.; because
the metaphor (the owner is a magician) undermines the otherwise powerful
slogan. We all know that magicians use tricks - it's not real. The power of
Victa's most famous slogan (still used today) is that the mower performed the magic;
not the owner. It is this anomaly that make your flyer more interesting and
... special ... which is a nice segway into the single model advertised.

I would like to say something about why the Standard was not included.
Victa described 1958 as "The real expansion year". In that year Victa had reached
a quarter of a million units in the field. In November of 1959, monthly sales
reached 25,306 units - a sales record. By 1960 the half a million mark was reached.

I guess you see the point being made - the Special was Victa's most successful
lawnmower of the 1950s. It was their best mower too. It was the norm that only a
single model would be illustrated in newsprint, whether it be by company or dealer.
Also, the Standard, having its origins in the first Victas, was by then looking
decidedly old. In the 1960s it would be freshened to become the 'Utility', a name
that would then be used generically to describe all basic side discharge mowers.
So... to me, the flyer addressed a specific local audience with a specific product.
Its main object was to get that demonstration - the foot on the lawn - by a single-
message flyer. It had to remain uncluttered and uncomplicated.

The penultimate point I make is that Victa changed its direction in advertising in the
late 1950s. It appears to me that what it said in its own advertising was much more
refined than what it may have 'suggested' to its dealers. For example, in 1958,
typical company headlines included: "A smoother cut ... neater lawn"; "Keep a showpiece
lawn"; "Summer weekends are too precious to waste".

The final point is that the release of the Shearline for the 1960-61 season really
stood out as positive proof of how lawnmowers would be represented in the 1960s.
The emphasis was on sophistication - TV, jingles, jazz tracks, stylised fonts ...

It was about our ... laid-back lifestyle ... not the taming of our frontiers.
The rotary was no longer 'revolutionary': it was mainstream!

[video][/video]

Thanks Jack and Blue, i think i just learnt more through those two items than i ever knew!! I knew this forum would be fun