This ad has a pretty utilitarian headline in the innovation/differentiation/unique-selling-proposition/how-will-it-improve-your-life vein, but once you get into the body copy, it’s a golden-age masterpiece of copywriting.
Fun fact: The snooze alarm was invented in 1956.
While we’re at it, here’s a 2,000-year history of alarm clocks thanks to Atlas Obscura.
Hey babe, are you into horology?
Continue readingI’m sharing this one for the last line of copy in the block:
“Every woman who sees them wants them—she must have them.”
A lovely example of inventing desire.
Fun facts:
Plymouth paid Warner Bros. fifty grand to use the Road Runner name and likeness.
Hatched in 1968, the Plymouth Road Runner wasn’t discontinued until 1980.
And yes, Plymouth had a special beep-beep horn for it, developed by the Sparton Corporation of Jackson, Michigan. Hear it here.
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I was trying to find out if the big container of Crisco was called a canister, can, jar, tub, pail, bucket or something else, and noticed this rather ambitious bit of copy…
What a great way to introduce a new brand.
Look at the sheer amount of copy in this comic book ad aimed at kids!
The copywriter even got “akimbo” and “dadgum” approved!
Wowie-zowie! I’m impressed.
Note: I had no idea Hubba Bubba was available in mint flavor back in 1980.
Behold, the out-of-print poster you never knew you wanted.
Whisper admonished me for failing to reach a zen state because I stress about things I should no longer care about.
“If you give somebody a perfectly grilled steak and they take it and slather shampoo and gravel all over it and then complain that it isn’t any good, that’s on them, not you. Meow.”
Whisper is wise.
As I trudged through this rambling, convoluted bit of century-old writing, I started to hear it in the voice of Mojo Jojo (Roger L. Jackson) from The Powerpuff Girls and it suddenly became much, much better.
Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company ad found on the back cover of a 1917 Life magazine.
It still doesn’t explain the blacksmith though.
“Umm… Excuse me, but why am I even in this ad?”