Advertising
Waymarking
The Waymarking site allows the user to add a geo-tag to any object or place to make it findable by anyone else.They have their entries grouped into categories, and certainly the Oddities subgroup will be of interest to WU-vies.
There you can find, among other things, giant commercial icons such as the one below.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 08, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Geography and Maps, Advertising
Follies of the Madmen #490
Our televised brainwashing will turn honest citizens into criminals.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 07, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Crime, Propaganda, Thought Control and Brainwashing, Television, 1950s
Follies of the Madmen #488
Induces gagging sensations of sipping tobacco-flavored drink.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 20, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Tobacco and Smoking, 1960s, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust
The Great Beauty Contest of Life
"Whatever you do—wherever you go—you are in a Beauty Contest."
Kansas City Times - Mar 12, 1932
Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 16, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Advertising, 1930s
Follies of the Madmen #487
This impossible freakish dog is a true representative of the species, and thus can be a fine judge of the sponsor's food.
Plus, cats are jealous of both dog food and cigarettes.
Ad source.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 06, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Food, Cats, Dogs, 1950s
Follies of the Madmen #486
Just a sample of the horrors you'll see after you drink enough of our booze.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 04, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Delusions, Fantasies and Other Tricks of the Imagination, Horror, 1950s, Alcohol
Why aren’t your feet as sexy as the rest of you?
One of life's great mysteries.The ad ran in Cosmopolitan magazine (and probably other publications) in the late 1960s.
I found it in The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe (1976) by William A. Rossi.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 02, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Advertising, 1960s, Feet
Keep the mouth glands active
"unless we watch out, the mouth glands slow up and decay sets in. The formula to correct this was worked out in Pebeco Tooth Paste."
San Francisco Examiner - Aug 21, 1927
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 24, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Hygiene, Advertising, 1920s, Teeth
Want-Ad Wonders
Two weeks ago I posted about Dr. Clark Wells, who spent his career trying to figure out how to remove bugs from windshields. One of the sources for that post was a cartoon titled 'Want-Ad Wonders.'Some further research has revealed that 'Want-Ad Wonders' was a series, authored by Howard Parish, that ran irregularly in papers in the 1950s and '60s, with the goal of promoting the use of want-ads. Parish diligently collected together examples of odd ways in which want-ads had played a role in history. It's certainly one of the more narrowly focused cartoon series I've seen.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 22, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Advertising, Cartoons
Baby and Cockroach
In 2003, the UK children's charity Barnardo's came out with the ad below. It promptly triggered numerous complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. Barnardo's argued that it "caused distress for good reason, but the ASA banned the ad anyway, saying it could "cause serious or widespread offense."The ad was subsequently voted one of the top 10 ads of 2003 by Campaign magazine.
Of course, the charity must have known it was likely the ad would get banned, but evidently figured the controversy would attract more attention to their message than something more subdued.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 15, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Babies, Charities and Philanthropy, Insects and Spiders, Advertising, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust
| 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 |