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Category:
Advertising

Life Imitates Art

Here are two commercials to watch. I believe that you will see a startling similarity emerge that will shake you to the core (or maybe just halfway to the core).



So far, so good. It's your basic ad for cosmetics, showing a heavily airbrushed woman who looks somewhat like an android (gynoid?), poncing around in an empty, black, out-of-focus room, interspersed with product shots against a stark white background. (I'm always a little saddened when the real product doesn't create lines of light in contour around my wife's face.) I don't know to much about the product's specific properties.

What I know for sure is that it bares a startling similarity to a fictional product I have seen before.
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Posted By: kingmonkey | Date: Tue May 05, 2009 | Comments (5)
Category: Armageddon and Apocalypses, Body Modifications, Cannibalism, Cosmetics, Movies, Advertising

Follies of the Mad Men #66

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[From Look magazine for July 22 1958. Two scans, top and bottom.]

Sure, you've all heard of one of the most infamous Madison Avenue displays of ignorance ever, the "flesh-colored Band-aid." But how many of us have actually seen the offending ad?

Here is one instance from many in that racist campaign.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon May 04, 2009 | Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Health, Stereotypes and Cliches, Stupidity, 1950's

Two Weird Books

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In the UK, sex services leave their advert cards in phone booths, These items are known as tart cards. A representative sampling has been collected in book form, as you can see in the link below.

But aren't phone booths going extinct everywhere? Who will save the endangered tart card?!?






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And of course, the Golden Age of print magazines is long gone or vanishing as well. But you can encounter the weirdest examples of the great Era of Zines in a new volume entitled Bad Mags 2. It's supposed to release in June, although Amazon is uncertain, so you'll have to check out its predecessor first. And visit the Bad Mags site here.





Posted By: Paul | Date: Sat May 02, 2009 | Comments (9)
Category: Magazines, Sexuality, Advertising, Books

Follies of the Mad Men #65


[From Look magazine for 3-4-58.]

Worst. Cocktail Recipe. Ever!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 | Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Furries

Welcome to Ginsu Way!

Yes, my native state has chosen to name a public road after an infomercial.

Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Apr 23, 2009 | Comments (9)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Government, Signage

Robo-mower!

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[From Look magazine for August 19, 1958. An ad from "America's Independent Electric Light and Power Companies."]

"Go, Robo-mower, and bring me the shapely form of my next-door neighbor's sunbathing wife!"
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Apr 21, 2009 | Comments (14)
Category: Business, Advertising, Utilities, Landscaping, 1950's, Yesterday's Tomorrows

Follies of the Mad Men #64

A prosperous banker-type, an American Indian, a sailor (or is he a Turkish immigrant?), and what looks to be Uncle Sam, are all sitting around in front of a billboard, having a gay old chat, when out of a handy box pops the sexy cigarette fairy, who dispenses butts to all, even scattering them around in bountiful waste. Then a sign is unfurled, claiming WE ALL SMOKE.

Massive WTF attack, all thanks to Thomas Alva Edison!

Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Apr 20, 2009 | Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Movies, Tobacco and Smoking, Nineteenth Century

Follies of the Mad Men #63

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[From Playboy magazine for February 1970.]

Was this behavior ever really sexy or cool, or a good way to pick up women?
Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed Apr 08, 2009 | Comments (14)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Sexuality, Tobacco and Smoking, Men, Women

Follies of the Mad Men #62

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[From Playboy magazine for September 1971.]

Please parse the logic here for me. We'll use feminism to sell ugly shoes for men? I just don't get it....

Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Apr 06, 2009 | Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Feminism, Fashion, Shoes, 1970's

Trader Thorne

Maybe the ailing car retailers of 2009 could benefit from watching this old training video. It's short, but in six parts, the subsequent five of which are after the jump.




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Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Apr 02, 2009 | Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, 1950's, Cars
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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.