This 1970 effort to unseat Monopoly as the grown-up-games champion goes real grown-up in its marketing.
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Game-Box.png)
The concept of Masterpiece seems interesting enough: you and your friends are art collectors at an auction. You get paintings that are assigned values ranging from fraud to $1 million, and your job is to buy/sell/auction your collection to end up with the most money at the end of the game. Kind of cool and cutthroat, right? Monopoly meets Pit?
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Masterpiece-Card.png)
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Board.png)
The commercial doesn’t seem to think so. It focuses on one aspect, the fact that you’re an art collector, and makes a whole meal out of how fancy that must be. This ad makes the game look like the snootiest, most boring game out there. Big fail.
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stodgy-1.png)
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stodgy-2.png)
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stodgy-3.png)
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Alarmed.png)
![](https://www.timidfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Crowd.png)
I have to admit that I haven’t been to any art auctions in my entire life but this commercial exactly matches what I imagine art auctions to be like.
-ds