Funny Vintage Ads (38)

Advertising has always been an interesting way to look at history. But when you see these vintage advertisements, the past seems a lot stranger than you thought.

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TV was already doing an excellent job of hypnotizing viewers by the time this ad appeared.
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What does Ben-Hur have to do with flour, you ask?
Nothing, really.
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"1,500 shots per minute" so you can mow those horse thieves down without leaving your front porch.

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The Flowbee is an electrically powered vacuum cleaner attachment made for cutting hair. It was developed and patented in 1986 and is still being sold online.
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The Thor washing machine of 1908, was the first electric clothes washer sold commercially in the United States. By 1922, the Thor-32 was “the last word in clothes-washing efficiency.”
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The Faultless Rubber Company promoted its Faultless Sanitary Sealed Package for delivering "Clean Balloons, Untouched From the Factory to your Child."
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Albert Augustus Pope began production of electric automobiles in 1897 and declared bankruptcy in 1907.
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 If all you are adding is a couple of inches, why bother? The model in this ad would be better off trying to save what's left of his hair.
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The Electric Banana Stereo Phono was inspired by an Andy Warhol painting of a banana for a 1967 album by Velvet Underground.
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 The Amphicar was an amphibious automobile built in Germany from 1961-65 and was a descendant of the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen military vehicle produced during World War 2.
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 This World War II poster in Little Rock, Arkansas shows there were separate treatment facilities for white and "colored" soldiers.
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 This Meal in a Mould looks more like a Meal of a Mold.
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 America's first toy Robot came with a crank on his back that operated a crude record player so he could say, "I'm Robert Robot Mechanical Man."
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At the turn of the 20th Century, there was a battle between baking powders that contained alum like Calumet and Clabber Girl and more expensive brands that contained cream of tartar, like Royal. In advertisements, Royal touted the "purity" of its more expensive product, while claiming that other baking powders were "injurious" to one’s health. Of course if you're baking this awful combination, then maybe you're not that concerned about your health. 

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 The REO Motor Car Company was founded in 1905 by Ransom E. Olds in Lansing, Michigan. Ransom E. Olds was an entrepreneur who founded multiple companies in the automobile industry, including Oldsmobile in 1897.
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 Maybe you get a buzz from depriving your brain of oxygen?
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 If you're pointing a radiation detector at a mushroom cloud, you might be in a bit of trouble.
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"Yes! I too would like to look like a 'Hollywood Hunk' instantly! Please rush today, my Super Shaper Buns Briefs."
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"His pocket pager is about to tell him something."
Yeah, that he needs bigger pockets.
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"Made of realistic space color plastic!"
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 William Rennie (1835-1910) was a Canadian farmer who became a successful seed merchant, educator, and writer. The use of black stereotypes was common in advertising at the time and Rennie was no exception.
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In the mid 1960s, Breck shampoo offered two "mod-styled" paper dresses as a way to target the youth market. Paper clothing wasn’t actually made of just paper. It was a blend of approximately 90% cellulose mixed with a synthetic, like nylon, for durability and flame resistance.
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 The Dick Tracy Wrist Radio ("complete with aerial and ground wire") made its debut in the comic strip in 1947. 68 years later, the Apple Watch made it a reality.
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His look says, "If she is driving, I'm not getting on that bike!"
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 "The greatest flesh producer of the age"
Well, except for donuts...
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The Osborne was the first commercially successful portable microcomputer, but going to work with an Osborne Personal Computer was like carrying a 25lb "portable" sewing machine back and forth.
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 From 1945 to 1946, Old Gold ran a humorous ad campaign featuring the slogan, "Why be Irritated? Light an Old Gold!"
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The Babee-Tenda Corp began in 1937. They were convicted of Mail Fraud in 2008 for, "falsely and fraudulently mailed sales material indicating the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) ...  sponsored seminars at which Defendant’s products were sold."
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 In the early days of flying, women were bought on board as "air nurses" to convince businessmen that the planes were safe. By the 1960s, they were being marketed as sex objects.
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 Made with super scratchy polyester yarn!

 

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