Advertising
She was boring her husband to death
This ad for Vivarin stimulant tablets ran in newspapers and magazines in 1971. It prompted a complaint from the FTC.
San Bernardino Sun - Mar 28, 1971
Ivan Preston provides more details in The Great American Blow-Up: Puffery in Advertising and Selling:
"One day it dawned on me that I was boring my husband to death. It was hard for me to admit it—but it was true…. Often by the time he came home at night I was feeling dull, tired and drowsy, and so Jim would look at television and, for the most part, act like I wasn’t even there. And I wasn’t. I decided that I had to do something. I had seen an advertisement for a tablet called Vivarin. It said that Vivarin was a non-habit forming stimulant tablet that would give me a quick lift. Last week… I took a Vivarin tablet… just about an hour before Jim came home, and I found time to pretty up a little, too. It worked. All of a sudden Jim was coming home to a more exciting woman, me… The other day—it wasn’t even my birthday—Jim sent me flowers with a note. The note began: ‘To my new wife…'"
All very nice, but but the contribution of Vivarin was to provide merely the amount of caffeine found in two cups of coffee. No miracle aphrodisiac, just good old caffeine at a premium price!
The major allegation of the FTC's complaint about Vivarin concerned this social-psychological misrepresentation... But the Vivarin ads were also alleged to be deceptive because they did not disclose caffeine to be the critical ingredient.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 20, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Drugs, Advertising, Wives, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #474
Somehow this image of a visiting insurance giant is not reassuring to me. He implies more destruction, rather than solace.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 20, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Giant People in Ads, Destruction, 1960s
Follies of the Madmen #473
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 16, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Food, Stop-motion Animation, Twenty-first Century
Veggie Cannibalism
We all know of the "animal cannibal" motif in ads. A chicken or cow or pig dressed as a chef invites the viewer to snack on his relatives. But I have never seen veggie cannibalism till this ad.Can WU-vies find other examples?
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 15, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Cannibalism, Vegetables
Follies of the Madmen #472
That mouse is definitely giving the finger. Is it supposed to be a sexy lure for male mice to entice them into the trap? I'm confused....
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 10, 2020 -
Comments (8)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Antisocial Activities, Business, Advertising, Death, 1960s
Follies of the Madmen #471
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 03, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Addictions, Business, Advertising, Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Tobacco and Smoking, 1960s
The Girl on the Magazine Cover
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 29, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Business, Advertising, Magazines, 1940s
Intestinal Chimney Sweeps
Back in the early twentieth century, the French laxative Jubol ran an ad campaign that featured tiny chimney sweeps climbing up into intestines and scrubbing them out.It reminds me of that old urban legend about Richard Gere and the gerbils.
Image source: vintage-ads — historical source: Rire - Dec 14, 1918
"Voila le petit ramoneur de l'intestin..." (Here's the little chimney sweep of the intestines)
L'Illustration - June 10, 1916
Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 28, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Health, Advertising, 1910s
Follies of the Madmen #470
Imagine your lungs as a barn...
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 28, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Addictions, Business, Advertising, Tobacco and Smoking, Surrealism, Twentieth Century
Anti-Fut-Swet
It "Hardens the feet".
Chattanooga Daily Times - June 11, 1898
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 13, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Advertising, Nineteenth Century, Feet
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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 |