Lucille Ball in 1950s Chesterfield Cigarette Ad

Lucy: "Chesterfields are completely satisfying. They're Milder - much Milder. It's MY cigarette".

Vintage Amtrak TV Commercials

Several old Amtrak (U.S. National Railroad Passenger Corporation) television ads from the 1970's era through the early 1990's; compiled in this 6 minutes-long video. A work by GrizzlyFlats.

Vintage TWA Print Ads

Some of nicest and memorable TWA (Trans World Airlines) classic print ads:

Vintage Schlitz Beer Print Ad

Husband: "Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer!"

Such a typical vintage sexist ad?

Ovaltine Classic Ad

Ovaltine vintage commercial with its double taglines; "pop out of bed with a song" and "wake up perky in the morning"

Rhythm in Lingerie, 1945 Print Ad

Text on print ad: The RHYTMESE BIAS BAND at the diaphragm is an original feature in every Rhythm slip whatever the color or size. The RHYTMESE BIAS BAND insures perfect fit ... keep the skirt from twisting ... drapes the bodice in flattering perfection ... makes you swing along with a dancer's poise.

Penril's 1200 BPS Modem Vintage Ad

Can you imagine what can we do with a 1200 bps modem today? It'll bring you a stressful time transferring just your medium-quality picture. And please don't ask about buffering a YouTube HD streaming video.

But data communication companies were really making a serious business with these snail modems. One of them was Penril Data Communications, Inc. 'Once upon a time' they launch their "versatile and sexy" all performers modems - ranging from a teletype (Bell 101C) modems and single card LSI 1200 BPS (Bell 202C) modems up to adaptively equalized 4800 BPS models. See the vintage print ad:

The Typewriter Designed to Keep Your Hands Lovely to Look At

Secretaries, look! Stubborn typewriter often give girls rough, widened fingertips. Underwood's touch is kitten-soft. 28 easy-to-set touch variations! You choose touch to suit fingertips, always look fresh from the manicurist! Telephone your Underwood man and ask to see the new Underwood 150.

A 1950s machine for 1950s secretaries .. (exactly, the Underwood model 150 was produced through 1957)

Tipalet Cigarette ad: Blow in Her Face and She'll Follow You Anywhere

I don't know if the copywriter of this vintage Tipalet cigarette print-ad really dare to blow his girlfriend's face with Tipalet smoke. But sure he's just one warped puppy found his trick to get smoking satisfaction without inhaling his own cigarette smoke and all its health risk.

Ad text:

Hit her with tangy Tipalet Cherry. Or rich, grape-y Tipalet Burgundy. Or luscious Tipalet


Blueberry. It's Wild!


Tipalet. It's new. Different. Delicious in taste and in aroma.


A puff in her direction and she'll follow you. Anywhere.


Oh yes... you get smoking satisfaction without inhaling smoke.


Smokers of America, do yourself a flavor. Make your next cigarette a Tipalet.

Coca Cola Print Ad From 1920

When first introduced in the 1880s, Coca-Cola was marketed as a medicine, with claims that it cured headaches, and that it "revived and sustained" a person. By the 1920s the company emphasized it as a refreshment and a "fun food". This 1920 Coca Cola original print advertisement depicts the contour shaped glass full of delicious and refresing Coca Cola:

Palmolive's 1938 Sexist Vintage Ad

A 1938 The New York Times's Palmolive printed ad. As typical personal product ad for women, It appeal to the basic fears of women who are vulnerable to the fear of growing old and losing their beauty, strive to address an insecurity, pander to the ego or create an issue for which they have a "solution."

Lava Hand Soap Vintage Print Advertisements

Lava Soap Ad from the 1940’s

Lava Hand soap vintage print ad from 1967

What Makes a Glass of Beer Taste so Good?

William Elder's "Visiting the Grandparents", number 1 in his series "Ol home life" used in this unique beer ad. What a happy family!

WW2 (Series E) War Bond Posters

As a purpose of both financing military operations during times of war and make civilians feel involved in national militaries, war bonds issued by government and are made available in a wide range of denominations to make them affordable to all citizens.

In the fall of 1940, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. began planning a national defense bond program. Morgenthau sought the aid of Peter Odegard, a political scientist specialized in propaganda, in drawing up the goals for the bond program. On the advice of Odegard the Treasury began marketing the previously successful baby bonds. Series E, F and G bond, would be introduced, of which Series E would be targeted at individuals as "defense bonds". The name of the bonds was eventually changed to War Bonds after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941, which resulted in the United States entering the war.

World War 2 Bond rallies were held throughout the country with famous celebrities to enhance the bond advertising effectiveness. The Music Publishers Protective Association encouraged its members to include patriotic messages on the front of their sheet music like "Buy U.S. Bonds and Stamps". Over the course of the war 85 million Americans purchased bonds totaling approximately $185.7 billion.

"DON'T LET THAT SHADOW TOUCH THEM" (link)

"A CROP THAT NEVER FAILS"

"KEEP US FLYING" (link)

"YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS EITHER"

"ATTACK! .. ATTACK! .. ATTACK!" (link)

Cycles Gladiator Banned in Bama

Back to July 31, 2009 when Alabama Bans Cycles Gladiator Nude Nymph Wine Label, The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board told stores and restaurants to quit serving Cycles Gladiator wine because of the label violated Alabama rules against displaying "a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner."

The mythological nude nymph flying alongside her winged bicycle artwork in the classic wines from California’s Central Coast label was originally an advertising poster of Cycles Gladiator, a French manufacturer of bicycles and cars Started in Paris in 1891 by Alexandre Darracq and based in Pré St Gervais, Seine. The image of the 1895 year Paris advertising poster symbolizes a celebration of the freedom and happiness that pervaded Europe in the late 19th century, and captures the grace and uninhibited beauty of hillside vineyards. According to Cycles Gladiator, "Americans then might have been shocked by the thought of a woman wearing pantaloons or bloomers pedaling a bicycle, but the French understood what sold products—thus the 'uninhibited' appearance of the Cycles Gladiator advertising poster".

Vintage 7 Up ad: Nothing Does it Like Seven Up!

Yeah, nothing does it like Seven Up. That's why they have the youngest customers in the business.

What the Heck is Electronic Mail? Ask Honeywell

Classic commercials that offer "future technology solutions" often look ridiculous when read back a few decades later.

Honeywell 70s Ads (I don't know the exact year) offers electronic mail (email) technology as a future automated office solution - but is available for today. Complete with illustration a letter came as fast as lightning:

This is complete text of the print ads:

Electronic mail is a term that's been banded about data processing circles for years. Simply put, it means high speed information transformation.

One of the most advanced methods is terminals talking to one another. Your mailbox is the terminal on your desk. Punch a key and today's correspondence and messages are displayed instantly.

Need to notify people immediately of a fast-breaking development? Have your messages delivered to their terminal mailboxes electronically, across the hall or around the world. Electronic mail is document distribution that's more timely, accurate and flexible than traditional methods There's no mountin of paperwork. Administrative personnel are more effective. Managers have access to more up-to-date information. Decision-making is easier.

Tomorrow's automated office will clearly include Electronic Mail. But like the rest of the Office of the Future, it's available at Honeywell today.

For more information call Mr. Laurie reeves at (800)225-3222/3 (within the 617 area, call 552-2948). Or write him at Honeywell Office Automation Systems, Three Newton Executive Park Drive, Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts 02162.

Remembering The Legendary Marlboro Man

As brand image of the most successful ad campaign of all time, Marlboro Man stands as masculine trademark, bring to the world an American cowboy masculinity myth, transformed a feminine 'Mild as May' Marlboro filtered cigarette image drastically into one that was pure masculine in a matter of months. It also helping establish Marlboro as the best-selling cigarette brand in the world.

The Marlboro man also considered as one of the biggest marketing icons in modern marketing world. On the other side, Marlboro Man being a most hated brand image, gaining the new nickname "Cowboy killers", as the anti-smoking movement has spread and attack its role in luring peoples to a cancer-causing habit.

Philip Morris, a London-based cigarette manufacturer who created a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell several of its cigarette brands, including Marlboro, had introduced Marlboro as a woman’s cigarette in 1924 with slogan "Mild As May". Later, in the 1950s they decided to totally revise the brand campaign.

Advertising legend Leo Burnett hired by Philip Morris then created the macho icon as Marlboro's brand image reposition. Burnett's original newspaper ad involves a rugged cowboy in nature with cigarette in his mouth, carried the slogan "delivers the goods on flavor". The concept of a cowboy character itself was inspired by a photograph that appeared in an issue of Life Magazine in 1949. In the United States, where the campaign originated, Marlboro Man ad campaign was used from 1954 to 1999.

Marlboro's TV commercial in the '60s reflected the idea of freedom in wide-open spaces. In 1964, the company revived the cowboy and gave him a mythical land all his own known as Marlboro Country. The Magnificent Seven movie theme was added to the scene when Marlboro Man enjoying a smoke on horseback or leading their herds through "Marlboro Country" dusty canyons or prairie and carried slogans "Come to where the flavor is"; "Come to Marlboro Country".

The Magnificent Seven Theme:

However, the Marlboro Man's TV commercials were discontinued when tobacco advertisements were legislated off the air in 1971, followed by radio, billboards and print advertisements in youth markets.

Marlboro Man TV Commercial:



The first Marlboro Man was Robert "Bob" Beck. Other actors who also portray the Marlboro Man were Brad Johnson, Darrell Winfield (who appeared the majority of the print ads), Dick Hammer, Wayne McLaren, David McLean, New York Giants Quarterback Charley Conerly, Dean Myers, Robert Norris, Tom Mattox and John Bryant (best remembered as the original "Marlboro Man"). For the European market, Marlboro Man portrayed by George "Bond" Lazenby (who played James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Ironically, two men who appeared in Marlboro advertisements - Wayne McLaren and David McLean - died of lung cancer. Before his death at the age of 51, McLaren testified in favor of anti-smoking legislation.

Related product link:
Vintage Tobacco Films - Dangers of Cigarettes and Cigarette Smoking, Nicotine, Cigarette Commericals, Smoking Related Cancer, Tobacco Industry Advertising and More
(a variety of films in a DVD discussing the health risks of smoking counterbalanced by a variety of commericals promoting smoking to the tv viewing audience.)

More Doctor Smoke Camels than Any Other Cigarettes!

If aired on national TV today, maybe Camel cigarette ad campaign version "More Doctor Smoke Camels than Any Other Cigarrettes!" will be the most condemned ad by anti-tobacco activists and doctors. But this ad was made and aired in 1949. In one version of the print ads, they even made such claim:
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113,597 DOCTORS FROM COAST TO COAST WERE ASKED!

According to this recent Nationwide survey:

More Doctors Smoke Camels THAN ANY OTHER CIGARETTE!

This is no casual claim. It’s an actual fact. Based on the statements of doctors themselves to three nationally known independent research organizations.
THE question was very simple. One that you . .. any smoker . . . might ask a doctor: “What cigarette do you smoke, Doctor?”

After all, doctors are human too. Like you, they smoke for pleasure. Their taste, like yours, enjoys the pleasing flavor of costlier tobaccos. Their throats too appreciate a cool mildness.

And more doctors named Camels than any other cigarette!

If you are a Camel smoker, this preference for Camels among physicians and surgeons will not surprise you. But if you are not now smoking
Camels, try them. Compare them in your “T-Zone.”
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I hate cigarettes, but somehow to me it looks as funny ads than provocative. Just another form of innocence from the past.



1949 TV commercial from Camel cigarettes: