The Fifties were a dark time, especially since they hadn’t yet figured out the recipe for Coca-Cola-glazed turkey.
1959 two-page Coca-Cola / Coke Thanksgiving magazine ad
“Grandma, did you forget to make the damned potatoes again?”
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
Hey, kitten. There’s a lot going on in this 1964 comic book anti-smoking PSA by DC Comics.
Smoking is for Squares! 1964 DC Comic Book PSA from an issue of Tales of the Unexpected
I’m still not quite sure why Paulette Breen suddenly turns into a 53-year-old truck stop waitress in the fifth panel. Probably from all the pointing. Continue reading
1954-ish magazine ad for United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands International) that I found in a box of scraps.
It starts off innocently enough. Vague, nice-sounding, feel-good advice on how to live better and longer. And then… BANANAS! EAT BANANAS! DID WE MENTION BANANAS?
It’s a double-truck ad from United Fruit Company, one of the companies quite literally responsible for bringing the term “Banana Republic” from fiction to the real world.
(Her yellow gloves were a very nice touch.)
So eat lots of bananas, kiddos, or Miss Chiquita will cut ya.
Banana Fun Facts: There is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas come from a herbaceous flowering plant with a pseudostem often mistaken for a tree trunk.
The tiers of a banana cluster are called hands, and each banana is also known as a finger.
If you hate those gross stringy things you find on a banana after peeling it, then you hate phloem bundles.
Lastly, bananas are naturally radioactive. Yay! Continue reading
1949 magazine ad for Schlitz Beer that I found in a box of scraps.
Ad Thoughts:
That clown is totally doing the Creepy Stalk & Stare on the bunny, which changes the narrative’s dynamic a tad.
I’m impressed they allowed a one-eyed pirate with depth perception problems to pour the beer and navigate a crowded party.
America needs a matador these days, to kill the bull.
After panel three, does the bear and bunny hump with the costumes on or off? I’m thinking on.
Fun Facts:
In 1902, the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was the biggest brewer in America.
Along with the tagline used in this ad, Schlitz later had “”When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.” Oh no! I’m out of Schlitz! Continue reading
Popular answers: “Do not enter.” “Dead end.” “Stop.”
Sadly rare answer: “Slow children playing.”
1969 magazine ad for Smirnoff vodka. Umm… What’s with the tree? IS IT A SATAN TREE!?
1981 magazine ad for Triumph 100s cigarettes.
Umph.
The origin of 3M’s Post-it Notes is the stuff of legend, and if you went to business school, you probably had to read the case study even though anything like it probably won’t ever happen again.
Now imagine being the ad agency creative team tasked with not only getting the public wanting the product, but also having to explain what it was and how it worked because nothing quite like it had ever existed before. Or don’t imagine it, because here’s one of the early ads.
1981 magazine ad for 3M’s Post-it Notes (Post-Its) with an excellent example of strategic and select use of color.