Category:
Advertising
Advertising
Advertising Club Beauty Contest
Miss Margaret Gorman presenting the wooden loving-cup to "Miss" Alexandria, winner of the Advertising Club's "beauty" contest, held at the Raleigh yesterday. In business life pretty "Miss" Alexandria is Sylvan Oppenheimer. "Miss Congress Heights," the young "lady" with the rolling pin, is Allan De Ford. The debonair "Miss" Georgetown is Sidney Selinger and the charming young lady with the raven locks, "Miss Four-and-a-Half Street," is none other than Paul Heller] [1921 September 21]
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 09, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Humor, Parody, Advertising, 1920s
Captain Yancey and His Fabulous Autogyro
Source of clipping: Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa) 03 Jul 1931, Fri Page 1
Good article here.
The Pitcairn PCA-2 autogyro was developed in 1931 and proved to be a reliable, unique aircraft. The rotor at its top was unpowered and it flew more like a fixed wing aircraft than a helicopter, based on the power from its radial engine on the nose. Once at speed, the rotor spun based on aerodynamic forces alone thus generating lift. It was an amazing sight and attracted crowds wherever it flew. By April of 1931, the autogyro had flown across the United States at the hands of John M. Miller, had landed on the White House lawn (by test pilot Jim Ray), and had soared to a new altitude record of 18,415 feet (this being Amelia Earhart’s record).
Seizing upon the press interest in the design, the Champion Spark Plug company purchased one and painted the sides with their logo and named it “Miss Champion”. It was the perfect flying billboard. After hiring Captain Lewis “Lew” Yancey, a former Naval Lieutenant and USCG officer who was a maritime captain, they directed that he fly the nation on an advertising tour. By the end of 1931, Captain Yancey had flown the autogyro 6,500 miles, transiting 21 states and touching down in 38 cities around the nation. Yet the Champion Spark Plugs company still wanted more attention — and thus they asked him to beat Amelia Earhart’s altitude record as well.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 05, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Publicity Stunts, World Records, Advertising, Air Travel and Airlines, 1930s
What happens when a fly lands on your food
1970 ad for the UK Health Education Council. The text is credited to Charles Saatchi, who was then a young advertising executive (and is now a wealthy art collector).More info: The Guardian
Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 31, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Insects and Spiders, Advertising, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #514
A face to inspire confidence?The source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 30, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Intelligence, Motor Vehicles, 1900s
The Ballad of a Gentle Laxative
These 1987 TV ads for Doxidan laxative, featuring the 'Doxidan Cowboy,' seem to inspire both love and hate. A lot of people on YouTube remember them fondly, but in newspapers from the time they were often cited as being among the most annoying commercials on TV.The singer was Skeeter Starke. He has a YouTube channel.
Fort Myers News-Press - Jan 25, 1987
via History's Dumpster
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 26, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Advertising, Excrement, 1980s
Melvin Belli Drinks Glenfiddich
The ad below, in which trial lawyer Melvin Belli endorsed Glenfiddich scotch, ran in the New York Times and New York Magazine in early 1970. Taken at face value, it doesn't seem like a particularly noteworthy ad. However, it occupies a curious place in legal history.Before the 1970s, it was illegal for lawyers to advertise their services. So when Belli appeared in this ad, the California State Bar decided he had run afoul of this law — even though he hadn't directly advertised his services. It suspended his license for a year. The California Supreme Court later lowered this to a 30-day suspension — but it didn't dismiss the punishment entirely.
Some high-placed judges felt sympathetic to Belli, which added fuel to the movement to end the 'no advertising' law for lawyers, and by 1977, the Supreme Court had struck down the ban on advertising, saying that it violated the First Amendment. That's why ads for legal services now appear all over the place. Compared to the ads one sees nowadays, Belli's scotch endorsement really seems like no big deal at all.
More info: Belli v. State Bar, "Remember when lawyers couldn't advertise?"
New York Magazine - Mar 2, 1970
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 16, 2021 -
Comments (5)
Category: Law, Advertising, 1970s
Follies of the Madmen #513
What size of empty container was used to make that ice cylinder for the Pepsi bottle, and what size freezer could accommodate it? Only commercial units. How many hours would you have to prolong your sipping, to justify the creation of that ridiculous amount of ice for cooling one bottle of Pepsi? And was this gal the only one at the bonfire to receive such a treat? So many questions...
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 15, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Soda, Pop, Soft Drinks and other Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 1960s
“I thought the Kama Sutra was an Indian restaurant”
Smirnoff ran this ad in the 70s but reportedly pulled it after a few months when its market researchers surveyed customers and discovered that "60 per cent of them thought that the Kama Sutra was indeed an Indian restaurant."
image source: codex
But according to Delia Chiaro in The Language of Jokes, the ad lived on in popular memory, inspiring a genre of "Smirnoff jokes".
In the mid-1970s the Smirnoff vodka company began using the 'before and after' technique to sell its product. The advertising campaign consisted of escapist photographs accompanied by slogans such as I thought the Kama Sutra was an Indian restaurant until I discovered Smirnoff. (The slogan originally had the additional rejoinder The effect is shattering which was eventually banned probably due to the allusion to 'getting smashed'.) The slogan turned out to be the inspiration of the graffitists of the nation as catchphrases such as the following began appearing on walls around the country:
I thought innuendo was an Italian suppository until I discovered Smirnoff.
I thought cirrhosis was a type of cloud until I discovered Smirnoff.
However it was not long before the graffitists began to abandon the formula, first by substituting the word Smirnoff with other items:
I thought Nausea was a novel by Jean-Paul Sartre until I discovered Scrumpy.
Soon, the caption began to move more radically away from the matrix, as more items were changed. In the next example there is no allusion to drink whatsoever:
I used to think I was an atheist until I discovered I was God.
Although Smirnoff jokes are now practically obsolete, the I thought A was B until I discovered C formula has now frozen into the English language as a semi-idiom. Today we can find graffiti (or indeed hear asides) such as:
I used to talk in cliches but now I avoid them like the plague
in which the original matrix is barely recognizable.
I thought innuendo was an Italian suppository until I discovered Smirnoff.
I thought cirrhosis was a type of cloud until I discovered Smirnoff.
However it was not long before the graffitists began to abandon the formula, first by substituting the word Smirnoff with other items:
I thought Nausea was a novel by Jean-Paul Sartre until I discovered Scrumpy.
Soon, the caption began to move more radically away from the matrix, as more items were changed. In the next example there is no allusion to drink whatsoever:
I used to think I was an atheist until I discovered I was God.
Although Smirnoff jokes are now practically obsolete, the I thought A was B until I discovered C formula has now frozen into the English language as a semi-idiom. Today we can find graffiti (or indeed hear asides) such as:
I used to talk in cliches but now I avoid them like the plague
in which the original matrix is barely recognizable.
Below is another Smirnoff ad from the same series.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 11, 2021 -
Comments (5)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Advertising, 1970s, Jokes
Raisin Bran keeps you regular
Trapeze artists discussing bowel movements doesn't conjure up good images.
Lincoln Star - Apr 1, 1938
Possibly relevant, this Snopes article: Did a Trapeze Artist with Diarrhea Defecate on 23 People? (The answer is no)
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 05, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Cereal, Excrement, 1930s
Ron Popeil, RIP
His obit at CNN.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 30, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Inventions, Chindogu, Television, Advertising
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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 |