What on earth are these? Anyone know? No obscene suggestions. That’s my privilege


One of the pleasures (and sometimes penalties) of writing this guff is that people send me stuff.

Take these mysterious thingies. Just as I was whizzing off to Sydney to escape my creditors Frederic Robesyn  wrote  saying “I’ve just stumbled upon these odd sausages while strolling around a flea market in Brussels yesterday.

I just had to buy them (I love unusual stuff!), even though both the seller and I were clueless about what these things actually are… I was wondering if you have any idea?”

What do you think, dear readers? Do they look like sausages to you? I think they are decorative 18th century contraceptives for small, thin ponies or large burly wolfhounds.

Anyhow, Frederic runs an illustration agency, called Wolpins – http://www.wolphins.com.

I thoroughly approve of him as he says his illustrators are “creative hybrids whose characteristics correspond to the characters of wolves and dolphins.”

Hence the name. This reminds me of an old cartoon series in a French magazine called Le  Monde Fantastique des Belges.

I’ve had some bloody strange art directors in my time, but no mammals. We need more of this stuff in our dull lives.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

7 Comments

  1. Martin Chillcott

    Horse tail covers?

    Reply
  2. Al

    Keep your cigar in, so that any flakes of tobacco don’t clutter a Gentleman’s pocket . . .

    Reply
  3. Mike Anderson

    Drayton,

    I don’t know what these are. But here’s what they should be.

    Bird Flippers. A new category of political advertising that offers an opportunity to present your campaign Logo and give the opposition the “Bird” at the very same moment in time.

    Reply
  4. Ryan Healy

    A cover for lies.

    Reply
  5. Frederic Robesyn

    So, I still haven’t figured out what those peculiar ‘vintage socks’ were used for in the past…

    None of the people whom I asked for help could figure it out either, though I did receive several funny and twisted suggestions, which I have posted.

    Any ideas or comments which you would like to post or share?

    They are about 1 metre (40 inches) long and have a diameter of approximately 7 cm (2.75 inches).

    Frederic Robesyn
    Illustration Agent
    http://www.wolphins.com

    PS: Please do refrain from posting obscene suggestions… That’s still Drayton’s privilege.

    Reply
  6. MHG

    I’ll bet Martin is close to correct on this one. For what it’s worth, the second one has a United States Third Army patch sewn on it. Not at all sexy, so it’s probably stitched on there for strictly utilitarian reasons.

    Reply
  7. rich

    Old footballer socks.

    Reply

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