Ken Padgett: Funny Vintage Ads (73)

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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Correspondence schools were operating as early as the 1890s, but the 1920s through the 1950s was their heyday. The Washington School of Art was once a legitimate art school, but the one thing they didn't teach was how to get paying work as an artist.

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Hey, if it's good enough for your horse, it's good enough for you.

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What the well-dressed lady wore in London in 1807 - a walking dress for people who didn't have to do much walking.

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From the Facebook Marketplace: Spooky Pies!

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Maps were available for free at most gas stations prior to the 1970s. In this ad, Gulf is offering to provide a "free, personally marked map of your trip" with "points of interest along the way."

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The Veiled Prophet Parade was a yearly celebration in St. Louis, Missouri, over which a mythical figure called the Veiled Prophet presided. The first events were held in 1878.

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Prior to the invention of the transistor in 1954, this was as "portable" as portable music devices got.

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Yeast was marketed to teenagers as a treatment for acne in the 1940s, and in fact yeast is a great source of vitamins and minerals, and it also contains all nine essential amino acids.

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"Our Best Movie Projector" is just as cheap and pathetic as our peep shows.

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Once upon a time, $10,000 was quite a windfall. Now, not so much.

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"The Farmer's Wife" looks like she's about to pass out.

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What is the milkman saying?
We put a wire around our paper seal to make it seem more sanitary.

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Sexist? Absolutely.
The best pinups have always been distributed as advertising posters and calendars for display in such traditionally male territory as auto shops and hardware distributors.

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A new innovation in automobile design: Windows!

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Don't "handle" your baby so much. That's bad for him. Baby needs to be left "Severely" (strictly or harshly) alone. Just put him in the Kiddie-Koop and ignore his cries for attention.

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Large female bottoms go in and out of style about every 50 years or so.

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The "portable" (28 lbs) Donner 3500 analog computer was first introduced in 1959, and was programmed by patch cords.

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Unlike assistive aids to hearing, artificial eardrums were initially constructed as a surgical prosthetic, a replacement of a damaged part to become integrated with a user’s body.

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HBO - The great Entertainment Alternative

HBO pioneered modern pay television with its launch on November 8, 1972.

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Ladies, if your husband is hogging the family car, just wait for him to tell you it's OK to rent a car from Hertz.

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Dr. Hommel's Haematogen was made from cow and ox blood.

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They wanted to use "Uncle Tom" in this produce crate label, but decided "Mista Joe" would be a little less obvious and still get the point across.

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During WW2 there was a rubber shortage, so if you were "driving carelessly or fast or needlessly" that meant you were helping Hitler.

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"The ladies love a drummer"

That has never been true.

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The Heli-Home was a RV packaged as a helicopter. It even had optional floats that allowed it to land on water. Winnebago marketed it as “the most dramatic, comfortable, convenient and unique RV in the world.”

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"It's his tobacco that won't pass the indoor test."
Make him go outside to smoke his stinky pipe and remind him that people who smoke pipes are more likely to develop cancers of the head and neck, liver, and lung as compared to nonsmokers.

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The Stone Method was a "system of concentrated exertion, by which more exercise is actually obtained in 10 minutes than by the use of apparatus two hours, and embraces a thorough course in deep breathing without extra expense."