Category:
Business

Kleenex - the cold cream remover

Kleenex tissues were introduced in the 1920s, but at first it didn't occur to the Kleenex marketing team that the product could be used for nose blowing. Instead, they marketed Kleenex as a cold cream remover.

More from wikipedia:

In the 1920s, the product was modified into the menstrual pad Kotex. A further modification of the original crepe paper made it thinner and softer, and the resultant 1924 product was called "Kleenex" and marketed as a cold cream remover...

A few years after the introduction of Kleenex, the Cellucotton's head researcher tried to persuade the head of advertising to try to market the tissue for colds and hay fever. The administrator declined the idea but then committed a small amount of ad space to mention of using Kleenex tissue as a handkerchief. By the 1930s, Kleenex was being marketed with the slogan "Don't Carry a Cold in Your Pocket" and its use as a disposable handkerchief replacement became predominant.

Chicago Tribune - Nov 10, 1924

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 08, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, 1920s

Money Card

No need for a subliminal hook for future customers in this one--it's all explicit! Buy American Express Traveler's Cheques.

The entry at Board Game Geek.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 04, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Games, Money, 1970s, Europe

Working on Sunday

The UK's Shops Act made it illegal to operate a shop on Sunday... unless one was Jewish (since the Jewish observed the sabbath on Saturday). So business owner Mike Robertson figured that to open his stores on Sunday he simply had to make his staff convert to Judaism.

The Shops Act had other oddities. According to the London Telegraph, a shop could stay open if it was "in an officially designated 'holiday resort area'" or if it restricted sales to "certain kinds of perishable goods, like fruit, flowers and vegetables; medical and surgical appliances, newspapers, cigarettes and refreshments."

Bristol Western Daily Press - Mar 8, 1977

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 22, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Law, Religion, 1970s

Dog Collar with Decorative Tie

When you want to bring your dog to the office, he or she must be properly dressed in a business-like manner.

Patent here.



Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 27, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Business, Fashion, Patents, Dogs, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #559

That endless red-carpet SFX is pretty impressive for the 1960s. Plus, an eight-track player!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 16, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Special Effects, 1960s, Cars

Rhapsody in Big Blue

Darryl Gammill came up with a way to convert stock-price movements into music. The result was the release in 1985 of "Rhapsody in Big Blue," which was a musical rendition of IBM's stock activity between April 1984 to April 1985.

I haven't been able to find any samples of the album online. I can't even find any used copies of it for sale. This was evidently an extremely obscure record release.



Popular Computing Weekly - April 3-9, 1987



Time - Sep 16, 1985



The Economist - Aug 31, 1985

Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 06, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Music, 1980s

Rent-a-Drunk

For only $3 a night, Colin White would rent out one of the drunks from his pub to liven up a party.

White explains that when people are worried about their parties getting off to a slow start, they call up and say: "Oh, Mr. White, I wonder whether you could send us around a drunk about 8:30 p.m.?"

So his employees could legitimately claim to be professional drunks.

Asbury Park Press - Nov 26, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 11, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Jobs and Occupations, 1970s

Follies of the Madmen #551

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 29, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Robots, Women, Twentieth Century

Hair Rental—You know it makes sense

These hair rental ads ran for about five years in British papers. So I assume the company must have done decent business.

I've heard of wig rentals, but for some reason the idea of toupee rentals seems weirder.

Sunday London Mirror - Mar 11, 1973

Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 06, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Headgear, 1970s, Hair and Hairstyling

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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.

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