Hey Skinny!: Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books
(click thumbnail for enlargement) One of the best things about old comic books are the ads in them. Most of them were designed to fool children into forking over money for deceptively-advertised products, or else trick them into becoming unpaid door-to-door salesmen for seeds or newspapers. (Has anyone ever seen a copy of Grit, "America's favorite newspaper?" Not me.)
Hey Skinny!: Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books, brought back a flood of memories. My favorite ad is the one promising a monkey so tiny that it could fit into a teacup. The monkey was your reward for handing out 29 "get acquainted coupons" for a photo retouching service. It would be great to have a poster of this!
Other ads include: baldness cures, zit popping gizmos, glowing skulls, girdles, BB guns, fake diamond wedding rings (for cheapskate groooms), art instruction by mail, spaceman guns and helmets, wrist mounted sundials, fireworks, chewing gum to lose weight, a kit to turn lamps into Christmas trees, real gas masks, magic kits, irresistible aphrodisiac perfumes, a guide for getting into the movies, telescopes, a musical instrument called the Gahoon, a glowing necktie that says "Will you kiss me in the dark baby?," inflatable dinosaurs, Hitler stamps, and pills to stop bed wetting. Link
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That's a bad link.
I looked it up by title and got this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0811808289/
I remember the ads for the "7 foot Frankenstein's Monster" that was, if you read the copy carefully, a big poster.
I always wanted the Polaris Nuclear Sub "Big Enough For 2 Kids." Didn't everyone have dreams of piloting one in the nearest large body of water?
I have read Grit. It's fairly lame; it's "good news."
I remember about 20 year ago my mom bought it from a neighbor kid.
My dad actually sold Grit in the '40s when he was a kid.
OK, someone has to help me with this. How does "send us your photograph" (in all of the ads in that photo) lead into the scams? Is that just the excuse for the COD charge?
From what I've heard, the Polaris Sub was a kind of folded cardboard play-fort. They had a spaceship too. Man, how I lusted over stuff like that!
That photograph-decorating outfit's free monkey deal must have had fine print. Such as: To PROVE that you handed out those twenty coupons, the folks you gave them to had to send them in . . . maybe with a photograph. If your prospects didn't comply . . . no monkey!
But now I want a teacup monkey SOOOOO BAD.
I ordered a couple of copies of this for Christmas gifts.
It isn't available from Amazon proper, but their affiliates carry it.
I haven't read a "kiddie" comic in years. I wonder what the state-of-advertising is? Can you still sign up to sell seeds or buy watches of dubious quality?
I own this book! It's one of my favorites. I've always been impressed with the Atlas "muscle building" ads. They always looked so great. I actually sent off for one back in the early 80's. I wish I knew where the brochure they sent me was.
Good times! :)
I remember looking through old magazines with the ads for Grit. Also remember them advertising x-ray specs and indigenous American arrow heads.
The Grit was/is published in Williamsport, Pa., near where my father grew up. He used to get quite excited when he could find it for sale in Tennesee where we lived when I was a child. I remember it always seemed to be sold by a disabled person in front of the Kmart in Maryville. I haven't seen it for sale for a long time.
I remember in old comics of Iron Man and Hulk etc there were advertising for various radioactive devices. A radioactive ring and x-ray glasses. I always wondered if they really were radioactive.