Advertising
Stalking the Wild Cranberry
After years of FOLLIES OF THE MAD MEN, it's time to look behind the scenes of the advertising game. Enjoy the fashions of this era!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 05, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Documentaries, 1970s
Pubic Display Type
The skincare company Kiehl's recently launched "a bold new campaign introducing Pubic Display Type. This first-of-its-kind font, crafted entirely from actual human pubic hair."They released three sample ads written in the new font. But they haven't released a full set of characters. So they can't really claim to have introduced a new font. Based on what I can see, they're missing: F J K Q X Y Z.
More info: prnewswire.com
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 25, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Hair and Hairstyling
The phone company wants installers like Alana MacFarlane
In the early 1970s, AT&T was faced with bad publicity. During congressional hearings, it had been revealed that although the phone company was the largest employer of women in the country, almost all of those women were employed as low-paid telephone operators. There were almost no women in higher paying jobs, such as in repair or installation. AT&T responded to the criticism with the two ads below.
Ms magazine - July 1972
Sports Illustrated - June 12, 1972
Was Alana MacFarlane a real person? Absolutely. Even before the magazine ads appeared, AT&T had been making sure to let the media know that it had hired a female installer. The media responded with nudge-nudge wink-wink headlines:
Long Beach Independent - Dec 16, 1971
Torrance Daily Breeze - Apr 7, 1972
But the national spotlight AT&T had placed on MacFarlane proved uncomfortable for her. Within six months she had requested to be transferred to a desk job, ending her brief career as an installer.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser - Sep 14, 1972
A one-page blogspot blog, "Alana Macfarlane's story," created in 2010, gives some info about what subsequently became of her. She left AT&T, joined the Air Force for a while, and eventually became an engineer. It reveals that she was paid all of one dollar by AT&T for the ad she featured in.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 21, 2025 -
Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Gender, Women, Telephones, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #614
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 17, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Food, Robots, Television, Advertising, Australia
How many green beans would you eat for $1.50
A question for the ages.
Detroit Free Press - May 2, 1971
This raises the question of how many green beans would someone eat just to claim the world record for eating them? According to the site MajorLeagueEating.com, Crazy Legs Conti holds the record for eating the most: 2.71 pounds of them in six minutes.
That doesn't seem like that much to me. And in the video below "tannermancan" eats 5.125 lbs of green beans in less than 5 minutes. He doesn't acknowledge setting a new record. But it seems to me like he must have.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 15, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: World Records, Advertising, Vegetables, 1970s
Jet Stream Socks
Jet Stream socks sure look a lot like regular old crew socks.
Esquire - Oct 1, 1962
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 05, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Advertising, Air Travel and Airlines, Clothing, 1960s
Selling sad produce
In grocery stores, fresh produce such as bananas and tomatoes often goes to waste if it's become a "loose single." Shoppers think it's damaged or imperfect.German researchers have come up with a way to address this problem: make shoppers think the produce is feeling sad because it hasn't been bought.
This is achieved simply by displaying an anthropomorphized picture of sad produce above the singles.
The produce has to be sad. Happy fruits and vegetables don't motivate shoppers.
Also, making produce sad works better than offering a price discount, because shoppers often assume discounted food must be bad.
More info: Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of 'Single' Imperfect Food
via Book of Joe
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 12, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Food, Fruit, Bananas, Advertising, Experiments, Psychology
Weebles Tub Sub
Was there ever a line of toys more inexplicably popular than Weebles?
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 07, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Toys, Advertising, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #613
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 06, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Candy, 1970s
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |