When Billboards Become Visible

If you're in the billboard business you'd probably want to know exactly when a billboard becomes visible to drivers. So in 1953 research was conducted at the Iowa State College Experiment Station to get an answer to this question. The study involved having subjects watch miniature billboards slowly approach on a conveyor belt.

Source: Duke University Libraries - Archives of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

The Duke University blog also notes that in 1958 "The OAAA commissioned Jack Prince, a professor of ophthalmology at Ohio State University, to study the visual dynamics of outdoor advertising, resulting in the first legibility studies of ad copy." I'm not sure how these two studies related to each other. They sound suspiciously similar. And the 1958 studies obviously weren't the first given that the pictures below show research labeled as happening in 1953.









Update: The researcher in the photos is probably Dr. A.R. Lauer of Iowa State's Department of Psychology, and he may have been studying the phenomenon of "Highway Hypnosis."

In the early 1950s there was increasing criticism of the proliferation of billboards along the side of roads. People complained that they were ugly and possibly distracted drivers. So the OAAA sponsored Dr. Lauer to research the safety benefits of billboards, and specifically whether billboards distracted drivers.

Lauer came up with the result that the billboards did distract drivers, but that this was a good thing because it saved them from Highway Hypnosis —entering a trance-like state as they stared at endless, monotonous roads.

The OAAA then took out ads in newspapers promoting Lauer's research and the safety benefits of billboards.

The Des Moines Register - Mar 23, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 20, 2017 - Comments (9)
Category: Advertising, Experiments, 1950s, Billboards

Devolution Through Beer

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 19, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Body Modifications, History, Advertising, Anthropology, Dinosaurs and Other Antediluvian Creatures, Fish, Alcohol

Follies of the Madmen #301

The birth of the selfie generation.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 18, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Family, Hobbies and DIY, Movies, 1950s

Hinkle Tablets

In 1915, this nostrum contained a nice little dose of strychnine. One assumes that by the time of the 1956 advert, they had eliminated that ingredient.




Original letter here.




Original ad here (page 13).

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 16, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Advertising, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1910s, 1950s

How To Lick Pimples

Source: Santa's Christmas Comics, Dec 1952



via reddit

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 10, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, 1950s, Skin and Skin Conditions

Follies of the Madmen #300

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 10, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, History, Tobacco and Smoking, 1950s, Men, Women

Irv Pollock, Auto Dealer

According to this verbal portrait of the era,, the Toledo, Ohio, car-dealership scene of the 40s, 50s and 60s was a vibrant, competitive time. Certainly a dealer would want to come up with wild ads to stand out. Irv Pollock must have felt that way anyhow!

Note: you might have to scroll left or right at the links to see the original ad.



Original ad here.



Original ad here.



Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 07, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Regionalism, 1940s, 1950s, Cars

Bowling is for Bored Teens!

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 06, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Sports, Teenagers, 1960s

Hurff Canned Goods

Once upon a time, a company with the somewhat off-putting name of Hurff was big enough to advertise in a top-of-the-line national magazine like LIFE.



Here's the backstory, so far as I can find out.



I have found ads from them as late as 1948. Does that mean that store was selling three-year-old cans of food, given the plant-closing date of 1945? Or maybe the plant did not close, but Hurff himself was forced out? We will probably never know...



Hurff is a fine forgotten piece of what cartoonist Robert Crumb calls "weird old America."

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 16, 2016 - Comments (10)
Category: Food, Regionalism, Advertising, 1930s, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #299

Not sure what the slugger prowess of stews has to do with running an airline. Nowadays, they could use a baseball bat for drunk-passenger control.

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 15, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Sports, Air Travel and Airlines, 1960s