Mr. & Mrs. James Garner and the Polaroid OneStep

In 1948, a new and different photographic instrument was presented to the world. The Polaroid camera with instant developing pictures. The film had everything needed to make the picture ready right in the hands of the taker. Talk about progress.

How iconic is the Polaroid camera? Well, the television series MASH spent a two-part episode where the theft of a Polaroid camera was the focus of the story. Andre 3000 of Outkast sang about them in their hit, "Hey Ya". Even in the age of the cell phone, it still holds its place. The camera could also be fitted with a flash bar (a series of flashbulbs of proper lighting). Sadly, this was still little help as Kim Darby was dragged away by demons in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." Currently, the OneStep2 is being marketed.

The Polaroid OneStep was introduced in 1977. In 1978, James Garner began to be the spokesman for the OneStep. He spent most of the commercials taking pictures of whatever children showed up. Around the same time, Mariette Hartley also started working for Polaroid as well. Both were alone. Each taking pictures of whoever else was in the spot. Just not each other.

In 1979, it changed. Someone got the bright idea of pairing up the two. Not only pair them up, but make it look like the two are in some form of relationship. Have them go to parties, county fairs, someone's apartment, etc. and add snappy patter and zingers and let the magic happen.

And magic did!

For next four years, Garner and Hartley became the hot couple of advertising. And the two were naturals. According to the company, they were getting hundreds of letter from people who enjoyed the commercial better than the network show they were watching. Polaroid was really unprepared for such a reaction. A large part of the success of the commercials was Garner, who, according to Larry Beeson, the adman behind the campaign, "is at his funniest when reacting to indignities." (Gannett News Service, 10 June 1979).

Watching the commercials, one fell in love with the relationship that the two had. They knew what to say to each other. They knew how to get each other's goat. They were witty, never malicious. One would think that the two were married in real life.

And that is just what the public thought! Everywhere they turned, people wonder how their spouse, be it James or Mariette, was doing. It didn't help that the first episode of the new season of the Rockford Files for 1979 had Hartley as a guest!

This became talk show fodder as well. Hartley spent a good deal of time explaining the relationship with James Garner. It go to a point where she went around wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed that she was James Garner's wife. She even had a shirt for her daughter stating that she was not James Garner's baby! Garner's wife came into the fray, stating in an article that she was thinking of wearing a shirt that said "I'm the Real Mrs. James Garner." (According to one article, there were t-shirts that stated: I'm not James Garner's wife, either!)

Apparently, James Garner enjoyed the commercials saying that he was happy they were neither demeaning or a hard sell. He went on to say that, in his younger days, he tried to make a go selling insurance door-to-door. (Clarion-Ledger, 3 June 1979, p 64)

The spots were a real boom to Polaroid, that saw a two million unit increase in sales for the OneStep in 1980. Further, they won a number of advertising awards for their quality. Mariette Hartley also saw an uptick in offers for her to do TV series and guest starring roles.

In November of 1983, Polaroid decided to go to a non-celebrity campaign. Both Garner and Hartley were out as spokespeople for the camera company. But, it had been a great four years for the two.

Special thanks to Newspapers.com, where I found a number of excellent articles that gave more insight into the ad campaign and to YouTube, which has a nice library of these commercials, should you be so inclined.

This is not the only article for the Blog-a-thon.  Others can be found at

 https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/2019/11/26/james-garner-blogathon/

There you will find links to the other fine articles by many talented writers. Please visit them. You'll be glad you did.