The amazing products and lifestyles that would be at your fingertips if you lived 50 years ago and had a magazine subscription.
posted by jtron on Aug 25, 2009 - 17 comments

If you love 1970s food-related advertising mascots as much as I do, you'll probably love Waffle Whiffer's blog. Loads of old posts on fast food characters, sugar cereal boxes, and even pogs! The Waffle Whiffer's flickr stream is a similar treasure trove of goodies with too many worth mentioning. Ok, just one: who knew the Thompson Twins had such great iconography (and why did they do a deal with Cap'n Crunch?)?
posted by mathowie on Jun 8, 2009 - 14 comments

Although Industrial Musicals and their jaunty odes to corporate pride and brand loyalty have seen the same fate as the values they espoused (mostly), goofily earnest and undeniable catchy tunes like Exxon's Up Came Oil♫, General Electric's Make a Woman Out of Your Wife♫, and The Monroe Calculator Company's 1660 & 65♫ are still as potent as all get out! [More songs and albums to help you get your gray flannel funk on inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand on May 31, 2007 - 24 comments

Dan Goodsell (of the unbelieveably great - and previously linked - Tick Tock Toys) has been keeping a blog for the last six months or so covering a variety of subjects (including his webcartoon, Mr Toast), but largely focused on U.S. pop culture ephemera of the 50's though the 70's, with a ton of great stuff.
posted by jonson on May 29, 2006 - 5 comments

Fred and Ethel resurrected as corporate shills "Through the magic of Hollywood, famously tightfisted Fred (William Frawley) and his irascible wife, Ethel (Vivian Vance), are brought back to life in a series of entertaining vignettes," California-based PacifiCare said in a release about its new television advertising campaign. Using body doubles, voice impersonators and computer-generated imagery, the national TV ads that will premiere in mid October will enable the two long-dead actors to "speak" once more. And, oddly enough, they'll be talking about PacifiCare's new drug plan.
posted by Artifice_Eternity on Oct 10, 2005 - 40 comments

Old Brands Never Die; They're Just Waiting For Someone To Wake Them Up: With the Nostalgia and Retro boom playing off the increasing number of niche markets made possible by the Web, it's time to start desperately plugging those favourite, time-honoured brands which "they" unforgivably stopped making, leaving their loyal fans in the lurch. What would you bring back, given half a chance? (I'll weigh in with Sobranie Black Russian cigarettes; the original Volkswagen Beetle; the Oldsmobile or, definitely, the Olympia manual Monica typewriter.)
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jan 27, 2004 - 19 comments

Well, I know somebody out there in Mefi land will find some use for fifty years of underwear advertising and packaging... I know I did.
posted by Newbornstranger on Sep 16, 2002 - 6 comments

Hit The Secret Fun Spot for a concentrated dose of nostalgia and some reminiscing about pirates in advertising. It can be said without exaggeration that pirates are loved by everybody. The statement "all people love pirates more than they love their own families" is truthful, and without hyperbole. It boils down to a simple "if then" statement: "IF you are a living being on earth or otherwise, THEN you wholeheartedly adore pirates and all that is pirate related." So why are pirates rapidly falling out of mainstream advertising? It's enough to make your timbers shiver.
posted by euphorb on May 10, 2002 - 25 comments