Follies of the Madmen #325

Possessed pants try to ward off other occult rivals.



Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 09, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Fashion, 1930s

Orangeine:  Death in a Box

Original ad here.

The deadly chemical in question.

"I was first called to see the patient, a young lady, physically sound, who had been taking Orangeine powders for a number of weeks for insomnia. The rest of the family noticed that she was very blue, and for this reason I was called. When I saw the patient shoe complained of a sense of faintness and inability to keep warm. At this time she had taken a box of six Orangeine powders within about eight hours. She was warned of the danger of continuing the indiscriminate use of the remedy, but insisted that many of her friends had used it and claimed that it was harmless. The family promised to see that she did not obtain any more of the remedy. Three days later, however, I was called to the house and found the patient dead. The family said that she had gone to her room the evening before in her usual health. The next morning, the patient not appearing, they investigated and found her dead. The case was reported to the coroner, and the coroner's verdict was "Death was from the effect of an overdose of Orangeine powders administered by her own hand, whether accidentally or otherwise, unknown to the jury.'"

Full story here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 03, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Death, Advertising, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century

Reg on Smoking

In the early 1990s, Regal cigarettes in the UK launched an advertising campaign that featured an everyman named Reg who offered his dad-humor insights on various subjects.

The first ad read, "Reg on Smoking: I smoke 'em because my name's on 'em." As he held his fingers over the 'al' in Regal.


Other insights followed.

Reg on train-spotting: "There's one."

Reg on party politics: "If you drop ash on the carpet you won't get invited again."

But the campaign was eventually banned because medical researchers discovered that the stupid humor of the ads appealed mostly to young adolescents, whereas adults 33-55 years old, who were supposedly the target group for the campaign, didn't identify much with Reg.

Below are all the other examples of Reg ads that I could find online.

Reg on the Stock Exchange: I'd never swap my cubes for gravy granules

Reg on Race Relations: My Uncle Nobby used to own a bookies

More info: JimHagart.com, "Cigarette advertising and children's smoking: why Reg was withdrawn".

Update: A few more insights from Reg.

Reg on taxes: "Too many cabs drive too fast."

Reg on the Exchange Rate Mechanism: "Erm."

Reg on television: "No, I'm not. I'm on a poster."

Reg on the greenhouse effect: "My tomatoes seem to grow better under glass."

Reg on the meaning of life: "Depends if you get time off for good behaviour."

Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 30, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Smoking and Tobacco, 1990s

Follies of the Madmen #324

Original ad here.

The notion of a garment that imparts a frigid chill to the wearer seems most unappealing.

At the time of this writing, there is actually a vintage one for sale online.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 27, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Underwear, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #323

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 14, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, Excrement, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1930s

Follies of the Madmen #322

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 04, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Fashion, 1950s

The Giant Leg Sign for Nylons

Source of foto.



Source of foto.

Judge the likeness for yourself.



Her Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 01, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Body, Movies, Regionalism, Advertising, Giant People in Ads, 1940s

Road Roller Endorsed by Doris Day

An odd example of a movie cross promotion from 1949. Perhaps fans of Doris Day would also be interested in her favorite road roller!



I'm not entirely sure if this ad belongs here or on the Museum of Hoaxes, because there's some odd things about it. For a start, what is this magazine Asphalt & Macadam Monthly that the ad supposedly appeared in? This ad is the one and only reference to such a magazine that I can find. And did International Harvester ever produce a De Luxe Series 56 roller-compactor? Again, this ad is the only reference to it I can find.

However, print copies of the ad appear to be for sale, which would be odd if it was a fake ad someone had photoshopped together.

But it's possible it was a fake ad produced in 1949. The movie the ad mentions, It's a Great Feeling, was (according to Wikipedia) a "spoof of what goes on behind the scenes in Hollywood movie making." So maybe a ridiculous/fake cross-promotion was part of the marketing for the movie?


More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 28, 2017 - Comments (15)
Category: Movies, Advertising, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #321

"Dead people like our beer."

From the American Legion magazine for May 1952.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 25, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Horror, 1950s, Alcohol

Toilet Tissue Illness

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Scott Tissues ran an advertising campaign that sought to convince the American public that there was such a thing as 'Toilet Tissue Illness,' and that it was one of the great public health crises of the time. Toilet Tissue Illness was caused by using cheap toilet paper. It could lead to serious complications, possibly requiring rectal surgery to fix. So the ads suggested.

The most notorious ad in the campaign was the 'black glove' ad below.



Here's some background info about the Scott Tissue campaign from Richard Smyth's Bum Fodder: An Absorbing History of Toilet Paper:


And a few of the other ads featured in the campaign:

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 20, 2017 - Comments (4)
Category: Health, Advertising, 1920s, 1930s