Category:
Advertising

Mating Call of the Humboldt Penguin

Buy our speakers because they sexually excite penguins!

What Hi-Fi? magazine - 1988

Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 27, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, 1980s

Undies Are Gossips!

LUX Soap's 1942 ad campaign warned of the danger of talking underwear.



Some analysis by Melissa McEuen in Making War, Making Women: Femininity and Duty on the American Home Front:

Exerting personal control over one's own laundry could be empowering, LUX ads suggested to female audiences. Women would have to wage a tough fight against their underclothes, which seemed to take on lives of their own in [J. Walter Thompson Company's] wartime advertising. Animated lingerie starred in LUX ad copy in the early 1940s. Flying, chattering bras, slips, camisoles, and girdles claimed to harbor their owners' unpleasant secrets. In some promotions the sneaky garments threatened to release this information, while in other ads, they expressed pity for the oblivious young women who wore them. In one group of ads featuring the wily articles, a headline announced, "UNDIES ARE GOSSIPS!"…

The "Undies Are Gossips" campaign radiated a core message familiar to Americans early in the war: the power of talk. U.S. government propaganda connected conversations with death and destruction for U.S. troops: "Somebody blabbed — button your lip!" and "A Careless Word… A Needless Sinking" warned viewers to check their conversations. One resonant quip suggested "Loose Lips Might Sink Ships."

Spokesman Review - Mar 1, 1942



Philadelphia Inquirer - July 19, 1942

Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 25, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Underwear, 1940s

Shreddies vs. Shredded Wheat



Source of ad.

The Wikipedia entries for Shredded Wheat and Shreddies fail to explain the overlapping existence of two identical cereals from the originator, Nabisco. Much investigation needs to be done. Was one more for the Canadian market?

Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 24, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Cereal, 1940s, North America

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:

ads for a product called Vivarin told women their husbands would be more attracted to them if they used it, apparently implying some sort of sexually based arousal which would renew the lagging instincts of tired old married folks. To quote the ad directly:

"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

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

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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.

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