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Category:
Advertising

Cremo and Spit-tipped Cigars

We all know that ad campaigns have often created the disease or deficiency they wish to sell remedies for. "Halitosis" and "BO" were Madison Avenue inventions.

But perhaps no campaign dared quite as much as that for Cremo cigars, with its charge that all its competitors spit on their product.

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Original text here.

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Original ad here. (Scroll down.)

But although Cremo increased its market share, their scheme ultimately backfired.

As this history says:

During the 1920s, the cigar industry began to suffer from image problems. The rise of organized crime during Prohibition, and the image of the stogie-chomping gangster--developed in part by Hollywood, and personified by such actors as Edward G. Robinson--gave the cigar an aura of disrespect among the public. Later that decade, the cigar industry faced a second crisis, when American Tobacco began promoting new, machine-rolled cigars. Its advertising asked: "Why run the risk of cigars made by dirty yellowed fingers and tipped in spit?" The image proved disastrous for the cigar industry as a whole. Cigar makers rushed to convert their manufacturing from hand-rolled to machine-rolled products, but cigar sales plunged through the 1930s. During this same time period, the cigar industry was hit hard by the rise in cigarette use across the United States. Cigar consumption never recovered to its early 1920s peak.



Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed Apr 18, 2012 | Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Lies, Dishonesty and Cheating, Smoking and Tobacco, 1930's, 1920's

Follies of the Mad Men #180

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[From Playboy magazine for September 1968. Click to enlarge.]

Our clothes make you look like the cliched madman who thinks he's Napoleon.

Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Mar 27, 2012 | Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, 1960's, Brain Damage

Follies of the Mad Men #179

VORWERK Stadt der Milben (Mite City) from Sehsucht™ on Vimeo.



Oh, great! Your product makes me feel like a genocidal monster!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Mar 19, 2012 | Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Hygiene, Europe

O. J. Wangen, Evil Paint Seller

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It makes no difference whether you want your house painted or not; whether you want to use Sherwin-Williams or another brand; whether you plan to do it yourself or employ a different company. None of this counts in the face of O. J. Wangen's plan for world domination. "Let us have our way... We will have it, all or part of it in the end."

Original ad here. (Scroll down at link.)
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sun Mar 18, 2012 | Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Evil, Newspapers, Interior Decorating, 1900's

Don’t Get Too Close

My favorite part of this 1950s billboard is the small sign at the bottom left: "DANGER ELECTRIC FENCE." Evidently needed to keep away the looky-loos trying to peek up the woman's skirt.


(via Dull Tool Dim Bulb)
Posted By: Alex | Date: Thu Mar 15, 2012 | Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, 1950's, Billboards

Trim-Jeans

This product was so bizarre that it inspired a Monty Python skit. See the video below. (I have a vague memory of something about trim-jeans appearing on WU before, but couldn't find anything, so I decided I was wrong.)



Posted By: Alex | Date: Wed Mar 14, 2012 | Comments (10)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Advertising, Products, 1970's

Worst.  Movie Theater.  Ever.

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Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Mar 13, 2012 | Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Movies, Excrement

Follies of the Mad Men #178



My questions:

1) Did girls and women acquire those same Charles Atlas muscleman biceps shown on the box, or just boys and men?

2) Do they eat Pep on the International Space Station today?

3) Does anyone today still say, "He's got pep!" or "I feel peppy!"...?

And if you haven't had enough cereal trivia, please allow me to highly commend this new book, which is a lot of fun. My review will appear soon at THE BARNES & NOBLE REVIEW.


Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed Mar 07, 2012 | Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Family, Food, Nutrition, Health, 1950's

Whiskey for Health

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Such was the medical wisdom of 1912.

Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sat Mar 03, 2012 | Comments (9)
Category: Health, Advertising, 1910's, Alcohol

Follies of the Mad Men #177





I'm confused: is this cereal for Beatles imitators or computer programmers?
Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Mar 01, 2012 | Comments (8)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Cartoons, 1960's
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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.