Category:
Advertising

Follies of the Mad Men #11

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[From Good Housekeeping for December 1958.]


Just one comment on this ad: why is this woman trying to scorch her own eyeball? Is this a hairdryer aimed at masochists?

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 13, 2008 - Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Domestic, Fashion, Hair Styling, Torture, 1950s, Women

Follies of the Mad Men #10

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[From Good Housekeeping for December 1958]

Here's part of the reason why we're a nation of fatties today. "Lose weight the hard way? No thanks! I'll just compress my flab and strap it in with manmade materials!"

And why is it that the only women ever shown in girdle ads are already so trim and underweight that they aren't the real customers?

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 11, 2008 - Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, Food, Torture, Fetishes, 1950s, Women

Obama = Antichrist?!?

Did John McCain and posse really intend to portray Barack Obama as the Antichrist in this recent campaign ad?

Decide for yourself....

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 10, 2008 - Comments (9)
Category: Celebrities, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Government, Officials, Humor, Politics, Religion, ShowBiz, Television, Video, Advertising

Follies of the Mad Men #9

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[This image is from The Saturday Evening Post for May 5, 1945. As you can tell from the slightly mismatched borders, it's two separate scans, upper and lower, with the division just above the punchline caption. Excuse my impoverished Photoshop skills.]

Once upon a time, hillbillies were a powerful iconic staple of American life. But alas, no longer. Perhaps The Beverly Hillbillies was their dying gasp. Since then, PC guidelines no longer allow for such stereotypes, as the Abercrombie & Fitch folks found out a few years back, when they tried to market this T-shirt. And so our national mythology is a little drabber and duller.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 09, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Political Correctness, Regionalism, Television, 1940s

Follies of the Mad Men #8

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This image comes from the cover of The Saturday Evening Post for March 15, 1965, and is attributed to the artist N. M. Bodecker. It touts the article "Madison Avenue: The Big Invisible Sell."

How many of these famous icons can you identify? My answer-key after the jump!




More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 07, 2008 - Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Magazines, 1960s

Bus Rage

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A follow-up to the widely reported stabbing and decapitation that occurred recently on a Greyhound bus. (Reported here by Chuck Aug 1.)

In one of those moments of perfect timing that only occur in a weird universe, Greyhound has decided to pull its ad campaign that sported the boastful tagline: "There's a reason you've never heard of 'BUS RAGE'", because unfortunately now everyone has heard of that phenomenon. (Thanks, Gary!)

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 07, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Scary Criminals, Advertising

Magic Cheese Chips

They admit it's "decidedly unusual," but I think it would sure beat stuffing envelopes. "Simply drop into hot grease and they're ready to eat -- big, tasty, crispy, delicious!" Question: What makes them magic?

From the July, 1934 issue of Modern Mechanix. (via J-Walk)

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Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 05, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Food, 1930s

Pelmanism

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Old self-improvement schemes never die. Recently, I spotted this antique advertisement from 1954 that alerted me to the existence of Pelmanism, the brainchild of William Joseph Ennever.

The Pelman Institutes of England and America apparently once claimed over half a million followers. But now they're long gone. Yet that has not stopped at least two folks from trying to resurrect the copyright-abandoned mind-strengthening course and claim and market it as their own. You can see their pages here and here.

Oddly enough, the last vestige of Pelmanism most people know, without realizing its true origin, is the card game we call Concentration or Memory or Pairs.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 04, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Eccentrics, Fads, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Games, History, Historical Figure, New Age, Self-help Schemes

Bad Santas

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Jack-booted General Santa Claus delivers "ammunition" to the troops during WWI, courtesy of Whitman's. (Ephemera)


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Come on kiddies, Santa wants you to have some ciggies! (eBay)



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Santa's happy. Why? Because his tree is decorated with boxes of Chesterfield cigarettes. (Ptak Science Books)

Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 03, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category: Advertising

Divorce Deli

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Minister Chuck points me toward the Divorce Deli. It remains a question as to whether pickles are extra.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 31, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Domestic, Divorce, Food

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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.

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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.

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