User Reviews

If you asked me what was a prime selling point of Westinghouse appliances, it was their reliability. My parents got a Westinghouse freezer for a wedding gift and when my father sold the house forty-eight years later, it was still working fine down in the basement.

That's my idea of what's important. This advertising short from Westinghouse, however, sells Westinghouse refrigerators by showing the young, mod woman that it can be endlessly decorated. As young women lean seductively on one with "catawba cherry" panels or frug in vinyl mini-skirts in front of another with American flag wallpaper ... well, that was the way they thought they could boost sales.

At the time I like to think I would have thought it stupid. Now it just looks bizarre. That was the 1960s.

RATHER THAN EMPLOY either some amateurish offering of acting or opting for voice-over narration, the production company opted instead for a wordless soundtrack. Backing up some well planned visuals (featuring a lovely young lady)is a very "in" musical score; which at once serves to amplify the message, while at the same time serves to date the production.

THIS SHORT IS obviously produced and exhibited for trade shows, with an outside chance of possibly being televised. At about eleven (11) minutes in length, it's just a trifle too L-O-N-G for broadcast. This length would offer too much time for viewers to visit the kybo, make a sandwich, get another beer or what have we.

IT IS, HOWEVER very interestingly done. What with such a mysterious and cryptic of an opening, our interest is piqued at the outset. And as for that opening, we see a solitary, young and very attractive lady hiking through the woods. Interfacing with nature via feeding some wild, Canada Geese, her appearance and her locale do not compute as being realistic. (Who hikes through a wooded area while dressed like a fashion plate from Cosmopolitan?) MOVING BEYOND THAT opening, we find the "action" of this film to be completely dominated by animated vignettes; which are designed strictly for promoting various Westinghouse refrigerators, ovens, stoves, toasters, incubators, etc. The emphasis is on the color scheme and matching decorative panels; rather than the efficiency of the appliance.

M UCH IN THE same manner of what had long ago been said of a Bob Hope monologue, "Nothing dates faster!" And this saying certainly pertains to MATCH YOUR MOOD WITH WESTINGHOUSE.

For decades now, Westinghouse has been a trusted name in electrical appliances, ranging from lighting fixtures to washers and dryers, and Match Your Mood with Westinghouse, a peculiar oddity from the late sixties, works to emphasize their name, their level of quality, and perhaps even a subtle affirmation of generationally accepted gender roles for women.

The six-minute short showcases a wide variety of refrigerator panels/overlays, ranging from plain black, walnut, and cherry-oak styles, to more complex colors and patterns that further one's creative intentions. Westinghouse also boasts their versatility in allowing customers a variety of options to accessorize their parties with decadent patterns of all different colors and designs. The short features little dialog and is largely predicated upon showcasing the products, their names, and their easy uses through boisterous, eye-catching graphics and strangely addicting music from the 1970's.

It's reasonable to believe that the intentions of this innocuous little short are far larger than just simply trying to promote Westinghouse brand appliances; there's an element of feminists self- expression here without being too radical that seems to seep through the story's direct narrative. The idea of allowing women the element of self-expression through appliances, specifically one located where most women spent their time in the 1960's, works to affirm the notion of where the United States was at during this particular time. Of course, expecting radical depiction of gender roles in a sixties short that, above anything, is trying to sell a product, is an almost unheard of thing, but it is through these short films that we often see something larger, more telling about where we were, as a nation, during that time.

Match Your Mood with Westinghouse, at the end of it all, social- commentary aside and primarily as a sales tool, is more fun than it has any right to be: its loud colors, lively presentation, and fun music almost indicate the attributes of loudness we'd come to associate the next decade with.

A beautiful blonde woman walks in the woods. She's posing. She's looking. She's feeding the geese. It's an industrial commercial for Westinghouse. It's kitchen appliances in all the surface finishing. It's young people dancing in front of those appliances. It's 7 minutes of industrial women's lib as long as they're happy in the kitchen. There are two interesting aspects to this. It's what a big corporation and Madison Avenue think of those times. It's also fun to see what they're pushing as design back in the day.

Nice flashy 60s great editing nice montage all the things the perfect music everything you want about this it's just here this movies perfect represents the 60s perfectly you want to swing on a swing on its like the people in those days and be happy and do this movies perfect makes people very happy and you see the furniture and I know the kind of people who religion back there school so happy indoors is it was great and of course the director of the movie did a great thing in represent in the 60s from those days beautiful and you just want more and more and more and this is what the people of the radio of nowadays I'm missing the peace and love of the TV is the only God.