Boardgame marketing in the 1960s

3M edition, 1968

A few weeks ago, our friend Jeff invited my wife Kathy and me over for dinner and a boardgame along with our friends Rebecca and Sheila.  Rebecca had expressed an interest in playing Acquire (designer Sid Sackson), and I had obtained a copy on eBay of the 1968 edition published by 3M, so after dinner, we pulled it out and started to set it up.  When Sheila saw the box, she commented on the atmosphere that the cover art conveyed, a sophisticated 1960s image.  The connotation was very strong - almost like a Sean Connery 007 film - and very different from the typical boardgame published today.

Parker Brothers, 1964

The next afternoon, our 17- and 12-year-old sons joined Kathy and me for a family game of our tried-and-true favorite word game, Probe (Parker Brothers).  I was struck by the same kind of image conveyed in the box cover photograph - four adults in ties and cocktail dresses playing the game in a sophisticated social setting.  The coincidence got me thinking about similar games that we have on our shelf - Stocks and Bonds (3M) and The Mill Game (Hoyle Game Company) - which made me wonder how pervasive this 1960s image marketing effort might have extended.  Was it industry-wide, or a niche marketing effort by a couple of companies seeking to distinguish themselves among adult consumers from "kid game publishers" like Milton Bradley and Hasbro?

Parker Brothers, 1971

Twixt, Avalon Hill 1976
Based on the 3M 1962 ed.

It didn't take me long to rediscover another old family favorite from when I was growing up, the French card game Mille Bornes (designer Arthur "Edmond" Dujardin, artist Joseph le Callennac, publisher Winning Moves).  The 1971 box cover art depicts the game on a wood grain table and four adult faceless players, three of whom are wearing long-sleeved cuffed dress shirts.  Not quite as sophisticated and formal as the ties and cocktail dresses of the 1964 Probe, but definitely not the casual, informal family game style of more modern editions of Mille Bornes.

But from what I've been able to find, the 3M bookcase series of games, more than any other, conveyed the mature sophistication that we recognized in Acquire at Jeff's dinner party.  Some depict a modern mature air:

3M, 1965

• Stocks and Bonds
• Twixt
• Foil
• Jati
• Breakthru
• High-bid
• Mr. President

3M, 1967

3M, 1963

3M, 1965

3M, 1962

3M, 1965

3M, 1967

3M, 1968

3M, 1964

Others evoked more exotic places and times:

• Bazaar
• Facts in Five
• Oh-Wah-Ree
• Quinto
• JumPin
  
  

  

  3M, 1964

So it is very interesting to take a trip back and see the marketing images that governed boardgame cover art half a century ago.