Pirelli—Tyres and Dates

Pirelli makes damn good tyres. In 1964 Pirelli decided to make a damn good calendar. That year 35,000 Pirelli calendars were produced, at a cost of £17,000. As the fame of these beautifully produced and skilfully photographed sex symbols spread, the demand soared to a print order of 60,000 for the 1969 calendar, for instance, at a cost of £60,000, or a unit-cost of 6s. 8d. Pirelli House in London claims to receive about 300 letters and calls a day about the calendar and export orders worth some £8,000 have already been placed for it from tyre agents and distributors in Italy, America, France, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Australia, Luxembourg, Austria, Holland and the Caribbean. What is the attraction of this Pirelli calendar, of which 48 tons’ worth have been printed? Cars, racing drivers, travel scenes? No. Simply 55 photographs of holiday girls (not professional models) on Californian beaches (with a sequence from a strip ‘club) by Harri Peccinotti, printed in London by Mears Caldwell Hacker Ltd.—W. B.