Advertising
Follies of the Madmen #297
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Maybe some Canadian WU-vie can explain the subtext of this ad. Three men hold up photos of hockey players while looking benignly but perhaps jealously at the fourth fellow who is smart enough to have a beer in his hand instead, with his own hockey photo (program book?) resting on a tabletop.
Huh?
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 28, 2016 -
Comments (12)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Regionalism, Sports, 1960s, North America, Alcohol
Follies of the Madmen #296
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 07, 2016 -
Comments (1)
Category: Body, Business, Advertising, Products, Dreams and Nightmares, 1930s
Follies of the Madmen #295
So that's where corporate executives come from! It's something in their breakfast cereal as kids!
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 01, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Children, 1960s
Post Toasties
Here's an ad campaign over the course of a decade or so that shows the Mad Men flailing around blindly. Whom do we appeal to? Kings, Indian Chiefs, housewives, nursery-rhyme characters, despotic sea captains, or cartoon animals? Or, in the end, the anti-hippie conservatives embodied by Andy Griffith and his fancy-neckwear disparagement?
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 30, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Food, 1950s, 1960s
Wiggle Stick
Wiggle Stick, used for bluing fabrics, was marketed heavily in the early 20th century. The name made some kind of sense, since it was a stick that you wiggled around in the water. But the ads with the women riding on top of a giant wiggle stick made it pretty clear that the name could be interpreted in more than one way.
Chicago Daily Tribune - Jan 6, 1904
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 25, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Advertising, 1900s
Man in Tent for Deep Woods OFF
Apparently, this commercial featuring a guy in a tent filled with biting insects has attained a certain minor cult status I was not aware of.
The original is in the first video at the 3:40 mark.
Here's the guy, now revealed to be Bill Clement, still stuck in the tent fifteen years later.
But most recently, he (or a younger surrogate) finally gets to come out of the tent--and he's got a sexy woman with him. That's progress!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 15, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Insects and Spiders, Nature, 1970s
Styled in California
My personal choice is the pants with different-colored legs worn by the young lad.
Can you say "sunburst terry twosome" three times fast?
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 09, 2016 -
Comments (1)
Category: Fashion, Regionalism, Advertising, 1960s
Shore Dinner
It's worth clicking through to appreciate the expressions on the people, at larger size.
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 07, 2016 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Cannibalism, Food, Myths and Fairytales, 1960s
Clark Metal Grave Vault
Rain protection for the dearly departed.
I found this ad reproduced in Marshall McLuhan's The Mechanical Bride (1951). He comments:
Unfortunately, McLuhan never specified where he found the ad. But it's listed in a 1947 catalog of copyright entries. So must be a 1947 ad.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 02, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Death, Advertising, 1940s
Follies of the Madmen #294
My favorite part is when this fellow puts his clasped hands to his cheek like a maiden about to faint.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 30, 2016 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1950s
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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 |