Tag Archives: vintage

“This is O.J. Simpson comin’ at you…”

O.J. Simpson's Spot-Bilt Juicemobiles ad from 1976
Found in Marvel’s Captain America and the Falcon #204 (December 1976)

Run away!

Fun fact: O.J. Simpson was once the Vice President of Promotions for Hyde Athletic (Spot-bilt’s parent company).

Another fun fact: Spot-bilt almost landed Michael Jordan back in the day before he went with Nike. Ouch.

Continue reading

Fashionable Despair

1898 ad for Armour's Extract of Beef
I need to start writing date info down when I scan. Judging by the calendar offer at the bottom, I’m placing this at 1898.

Fin de Siècle (translation: end of the century) — Merriam-Webster has one heck of another definition for it:

“of, relating to, or characteristic of the close of the 19th century and especially its literary and artistic climate of sophistication, world-weariness, and fashionable despair”

Fashionable despair.

Fashionable despair and beef tea.

Continue reading

It’s Saponified!

1898 ad for Pear's Soap
1898 ad for Pear’s Soap

Pear’s Soap has several claims to fame.
It was the world’s first transparent soap.
It is the world’s oldest continuous brand.
And as chairman of the company, Thomas J. Barratt is known to some as the father of modern advertising.

Would you like to learn more about saponification? Of course you would! (You don’t.)

Continue reading

“…feel even more feminine than before.”

1969 magazine ad for Eastern Air Lines (1926-1991)
1969 magazine ad for Eastern Air Lines (1926-1991)

Ever see The Wicker Man movie? The one with Edward Woodward, not the iffy remake with Nicolas Cage. Oh, no reason.

Continue reading

“Be the first in your crowd to drive the Dodge Super Grape.”

1970 Dodge Plum Crazy Challenger R/T ad
1970 Dodge Plum Crazy Challenger R/T ad

Can I get it in a light urple?

Continue reading

Serve them often.

1925 Campbell’s Pork and Beans with Tomato Sauce ad
found in the February 28, 1925 issue of Literary Digest

Joseph A. Campbell III: “We need the perfect word that’ll really get these beans flying off the shelves!”

Tommy Thompson: “How about… ‘digestible’?”

Campbell: “Thompson, my boy, I see a VP title in your future!”

Continue reading

Who’s Your Daddy?

Old Spice After Shave and Cologne ad from 1969.
from the May 16, 1969 issue of Life magazine

Is this official Spice Girls canon?

Continue reading

All the horrors of karaoke plus all the horrors of 8-track tape!

GE The Loudmouth
from the July 15, 1976 issue of Rolling Stone magazine

What a way to celebrate America’s Bicentennial.

Fun fact: Billboard’s #1 song on the Hot 100 around the time of this ad?
Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight”.

Another fun fact: Radio Shack sold blank 8-track tapes until 1990.

“Ladies.”
Continue reading

“The treacherous are ever distrustful. Send in that dollar, Margie!” — Gandalf

Margie gets FREE GIFTS for the whole family
Gandalf Products (The Consumer Gazette) ad found in a comic book from 1975 or so.
I… I remember Margie being drawn a little bit better back when I was a kid.
Her friend is pretty hot tho.
Continue reading

Uncle Sam wants… YOU!?

American Motors Gremlin magazine ad
found in the May, 1970 issue of Car and Driver magazine

Behold, the American Motors Gremlin.

Fun Facts:

Its sales brochure called it “the first American-built import”.

It was marketed as “cute and different”.

Both Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush once owned and drove Gremlins.

In 2007, Time magazine included it in its list of “The 50 Worst Cars of All Time”.

In 2020, Automobile magazine gave it a good review, but still called it “one of history’s dorkiest cars”.

Continue reading