Category:
Advertising

Borden Ice Cream Ads













I watch only one half-hour of TV per week--THE SIMPSONS--so I am not really qualified to assert this. Maybe a reader can clarify. Are there such things nowadays as TV ads for ice cream? I think not. In the 1950s, Americans had to be trained to consume luxuries like ice cream. Now we eat it automatically, three times a day! So why waste money on ads?

Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 06, 2013 - Comments (6)
Category: Addictions, Eating, Business, Advertising, Television, Junk Food, 1950s

Air Devils Toy



Kids today, with their ubiquitous sophisticated remote-control helicopters, don't know how lucky they have it, over previous generations with their more primitive toys.

But why did we have so much fun?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 02, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Toys, Advertising, 1970s

Follies of the Madmen #197

image

As gross-outs go, the notion of a giant head raining its dandruff on helpless humans (or is that a normal-sized head raining on shrunken doll people?), is pretty far up the scale. Not sure, however, that it makes me want to buy the product.

Original ad here.


Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 24, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Disasters, 1940s, Hair and Hairstyling

Westphal’s Auxiliator

image image
[Click text to enlarge]

Here's an old-timey hair tonic with a weird name. The strange noun just means "helper."

Composed of "55% grain alcohol," it went down many an alcoholic's gullet, I'm sure.

Believe it or not, the tonic was mentioned in a SIMPSONS comicbook. If you look at their ad below, you'll see why. The mutant female user resembles the famed Springfield three-eyed fish.

image

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 22, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Elderly and Seniors, Comics, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, Nineteenth Century, Hair and Hairstyling

What cigarette would your doctor recommend?




An ad campaign for Camels from the mid 1940s. The Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising site (where I found them) notes:

The none-too-subtle message was that if the doctor, with all of his expertise, chose to smoke a particular brand, then it must be safe. Unlike with celebrity and athlete endorsers, the doctors depicted were never specific individuals, because physicians who engaged in advertising would risk losing their license. (It was contrary to accepted medical ethics at the time for doctors to advertise.) Instead, the images always presented an idealized physician - wise, noble, and caring - who enthusiastically partook of the smoking habit. All of the "doctors" in these ads came out of central casting from among actors dressed up to look like doctors.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 10, 2013 - Comments (11)
Category: Addictions, Advertising, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #196

image

image

This is a particularly egregious cut and paste job, even for the pre-Photoshop era. Never mind the far-fetched association of lady astronauts and booze.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 26, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1960s, Alcohol

Dying pigs’ squeal used to sell pianos

Found in Popular Mechanics, October 1907:

It has long been the boast of the Chicago packing houses, that in killing hogs everything is utilized — except the squeal. The squeal has now been turned to account in this way:

An ingenious piano salesman travels through the country, taking several instruments with him. To draw a crowd he gives a free evening entertainment with a moving picture machine. Between each series of views he demonstrates on the pianos. One of his pictures shows the progress of events at a packing house. To make the scenes in the killing room realistic he visited the plant and secured some phonograph records of the porkers as they let out some vigorous remarks. Now when the moving picture reaches the pig sticking act, he turns on his phonograph and his visitors can see and hear just as if they were actually present at the original scene of operations.


I wonder how many pianos he sold using this method.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 23, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Music, Advertising, 1900s

Sir Linit



Knights, armor, fabric clothes? And the connection is...?

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 18, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, 1960s

Follies of the Madmen #195



This one comes courtesy of longtime WU-vie Expat47.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 15, 2012 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Junk Food, Reader Recommendation, 1950s

Mercedes Benz Commercials









Maybe it's just me, but I find these commercials remarkably creepy, inauthentic, unappealing, ineffective and misguided, given my perceptions anyhow of who buys a Mercedes.

What do you all think?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 08, 2012 - Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Humor, Stereotypes and Cliches, Europe, Cars

Page 97 of 134 pages ‹ First  < 95 96 97 98 99 >  Last ›




weird universe thumbnail
Who We Are
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
Monthly Archives
November 2024 •  October 2024 •  September 2024 •  August 2024 •  July 2024 •  June 2024 •  May 2024 •  April 2024 •  March 2024 •  February 2024 •  January 2024

December 2023 •  November 2023 •  October 2023 •  September 2023 •  August 2023 •  July 2023 •  June 2023 •  May 2023 •  April 2023 •  March 2023 •  February 2023 •  January 2023

December 2022 •  November 2022 •  October 2022 •  September 2022 •  August 2022 •  July 2022 •  June 2022 •  May 2022 •  April 2022 •  March 2022 •  February 2022 •  January 2022

December 2021 •  November 2021 •  October 2021 •  September 2021 •  August 2021 •  July 2021 •  June 2021 •  May 2021 •  April 2021 •  March 2021 •  February 2021 •  January 2021

December 2020 •  November 2020 •  October 2020 •  September 2020 •  August 2020 •  July 2020 •  June 2020 •  May 2020 •  April 2020 •  March 2020 •  February 2020 •  January 2020

December 2019 •  November 2019 •  October 2019 •  September 2019 •  August 2019 •  July 2019 •  June 2019 •  May 2019 •  April 2019 •  March 2019 •  February 2019 •  January 2019

December 2018 •  November 2018 •  October 2018 •  September 2018 •  August 2018 •  July 2018 •  June 2018 •  May 2018 •  April 2018 •  March 2018 •  February 2018 •  January 2018

December 2017 •  November 2017 •  October 2017 •  September 2017 •  August 2017 •  July 2017 •  June 2017 •  May 2017 •  April 2017 •  March 2017 •  February 2017 •  January 2017

December 2016 •  November 2016 •  October 2016 •  September 2016 •  August 2016 •  July 2016 •  June 2016 •  May 2016 •  April 2016 •  March 2016 •  February 2016 •  January 2016

December 2015 •  November 2015 •  October 2015 •  September 2015 •  August 2015 •  July 2015 •  June 2015 •  May 2015 •  April 2015 •  March 2015 •  February 2015 •  January 2015

December 2014 •  November 2014 •  October 2014 •  September 2014 •  August 2014 •  July 2014 •  June 2014 •  May 2014 •  April 2014 •  March 2014 •  February 2014 •  January 2014

December 2013 •  November 2013 •  October 2013 •  September 2013 •  August 2013 •  July 2013 •  June 2013 •  May 2013 •  April 2013 •  March 2013 •  February 2013 •  January 2013

December 2012 •  November 2012 •  October 2012 •  September 2012 •  August 2012 •  July 2012 •  June 2012 •  May 2012 •  April 2012 •  March 2012 •  February 2012 •  January 2012

December 2011 •  November 2011 •  October 2011 •  September 2011 •  August 2011 •  July 2011 •  June 2011 •  May 2011 •  April 2011 •  March 2011 •  February 2011 •  January 2011

December 2010 •  November 2010 •  October 2010 •  September 2010 •  August 2010 •  July 2010 •  June 2010 •  May 2010 •  April 2010 •  March 2010 •  February 2010 •  January 2010

December 2009 •  November 2009 •  October 2009 •  September 2009 •  August 2009 •  July 2009 •  June 2009 •  May 2009 •  April 2009 •  March 2009 •  February 2009 •  January 2009

December 2008 •  November 2008 •  October 2008 •  September 2008 •  August 2008 •  July 2008 •