He’s totally going to accidentally kick that other bottle over… 62 years ago.
Fun facts: Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote. (1869)
A higher-end fringed suede jacket could set you back over $1,600.
Copywriters really liked ellipses back in those days.
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Fun Fact: This ad came out a month before the first episode of The Addams Family on TV.
Another Fun Fact: Gent magazine was once subtitled “Home of the D-Cups.”
Continue readingFearless Fosdick was a comic strip parody of Dick Tracy that existed inside another comic strip, Al Capp’s Li’l Abner. He became so popular that he got his own TV puppet show, inspired the creation of MAD Magazine (allegedly) and became the spokesman, in his own way, for Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic.
Also, he was stupid, broke, had terrible aim and was frequently shot. Not quite a Dapper Dan, but he did the job.
Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen.
he will be good but
god knows When
Historical note: The poem in the ad is a Lincoln original written in his math book when he was in his teens. Would you like to know more?
A bit of Inkograph history can be found here.
(I’m assuming that the “lickin’” has something to do with old-timey writing instruments to get the ink flowing, but I could be wrong. Also, I’m trying to keep things clean.)
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Odds and ends:
A portière (mentioned at the bottom of the ad) is a hanging curtain placed over a door or doorway. I am not sure if a beaded curtain officially qualifies as a portière, but why not, eh?
Online, I found a couple of variations of the Lewando’s mother cat delicately and lovingly hanging the chicks up to dry, and when in color, each of the clothespinned chicks is a different color. Probably because of their dyeing services, but maybe just because it’s cute. Dye hard.
“Cleansing” sounds much more elegant and thorough than “cleaning”. You can probably charge more for it.
Sometimes Lewando’s has an apostrophe, and sometimes Lewandos doesn’t have an apostrophe. Lewando does what Lewando wants.
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As I trudged through this rambling, convoluted bit of century-old writing, I started to hear it in the voice of Mojo Jojo (Roger L. Jackson) from The Powerpuff Girls and it suddenly became much, much better.
Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company ad found on the back cover of a 1917 Life magazine.
It still doesn’t explain the blacksmith though.
“Umm… Excuse me, but why am I even in this ad?”
1949 “Travel Refreshed” Coca-Cola / Coke Santa Claus / Sprite Boy Ad
I have several questions.
Does Coke taste even better if you tilt the bottle up that high as you’re drinking it?
Did Santa pound that bottle cap into the Coca-Cola’s Sprite Boy’s forehead?
Does it mind control, lobotomize or zombify poor Sprite Boy?
Was Sprite Boy a naughty boy and this is his punishment?
If sprites are tiny, just how tiny are those tiny reindeer?
Seriously, that bottle cap looks like it hurts. Just look at his eyes.
Trivia: Coca-Cola didn’t introduce Sprite until 1961, which makes Sprite Boy pre-Sprite.
I’m sure it all made sense at the time.
1947 Coca-Cola / Coke Santa Claus Christmas Ad
Close that damned fridge door, Santa! We’re not made of money! Continue reading
1944 Coca-Cola / Coke Christmas ad
I wonder how long it took them to realize that the father in this 1944 Coca-Cola Christmas ad was dead?
He’s pining.