Follies of the Madmen #442

Those who drink our booze are eccentric tree-climbing idiots.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 31, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Business, Advertising, 1960s, Alcohol

Follies of the Madmen #441

Not sure how a different color motor oil is better for your car. Don't think the advertiser can tell us either.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 26, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Motor Vehicles, 1950s

Sweat Perfume

Finnish ad agency Mirum Helsinki has created a perfume it's calling "Creative Essence." The raw material for it is sweat collected from employees, “in the midst of a workout, a sauna treatment, or in one case, gustatory sweating caused by extra spicy chicken wings.”

The agency is hoping the perfume will serve as a recruiting tool. Explains a rep:


More info: creativeessence.mirum.fi, Quartz

Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 24, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Advertising, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

Every body needs milk

In 1969, the dairy industry launched an advertising campaign with the slogan, "Every body needs milk."

In Oregon, the marketing team decided to conduct an experiment to find out whether showing more skin on a billboard would attract more attention. To do this, they created two different versions of an image. Both showed an attractive young woman lying down, feeding milk to a kitten. But in one version she was wearing slacks and a long-sleeved blouse. In the other, she was wearing a bikini.

It took me a lot of searching, and I wasn't able to find very good-quality copies, but I believe these are the two different billboard scenes:

Source: Flickr

Minneapolis Star - Feb 20, 1970

So, did one billboard attract more attention than the other? The marketers surveyed 231 teenagers and concluded that there was "no indication that the amount of clothing made any difference in the awareness."

Salem Capital Journal - May 6, 1970

That was their conclusion, but I'm not sure I believe them, because the rest of the marketing campaign focused heavily on bikini-clad models. Two examples below.





They even made it possible to buy the bikini-themed images as a poster and towel. Which suggests the bikini billboards did attract more attention.

Oakland Tribune - May 24, 1970

The Capital Journal - June 3, 1970

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 22, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Advertising, 1970s, Billboards

Crazy Cow Cereal

Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 22, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Food, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, 1970s

Follies of the Madmen #440

"Even nice people perspire." Nice in this case being the polo-playing upper crust.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 18, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Hygiene

Follies of the Madmen #439

No cereal that has touched dirty baby butt is going in my dish!

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 13, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Babies, Business, Advertising, Food, Hygiene, 1900s

Follies of the Madmen #438

Extra credit for the chutzpah of the "full chest" pun. But seriously, if women buy the linens for the home, who is this ad directed at?

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 05, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Domestic, Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, 1950s

Your wife is hot

A controversial billboard for air conditioning recently appeared in Nottingham. It declared, "Your wife is hot." According to the BBC:


This made me wonder, which 1950s-era ad exactly was it like? Perhaps the "recipe for boiled wife" ad that we recently posted about.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 31, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Gender, Billboards

Follies of the Madmen #437

1) A bicycle tire confusingly has the same name as a razor blade company.

2) The mascot for the tire is a hyper-dimensional polar bear. These creatures apparently represent all that is desirable in a tire.

3) Even with its magic powers, the hyper-dimensional polar bear does not act to save the victim directly, but makes the human boy do all the work.

4) Moral: buy our tires to avoid snake bites?

Source (page 20).

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 28, 2019 - Comments (5)
Category: Accidents, Anthropomorphism, Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Comics