Duke University has three image collections of old U.S. and Canadian advertisements. Ad*Access a database of over 7000 print ads from 1911 to 1956. Emergence of Advertising in America has 9000 images of ads from 1850-1920. Medicine and Madison Avenue has 600 medical ads and documents from 1911 to 1958. You can browse the collections by product, company, subject, year and categories or you can use the search function. Here are some of my favorites: Miss Clairol, They're Both in the Swim Today, Fancy Goods and Toy Bazaar, Sky Blue Pink, SAS Makes Airline History, A Montgomery Ward Hat that Becomes Nearly Every Woman, Radiant Peony and Hitler's Death Warrant.
posted on Apr 14, 2008 - View this thread

“Poor Lois, See How Old She's Growing! Too bad she’s doesn't try to remain the girl her husband fell in love with. The change is so gradual you never see it but your friends do."

Vintage Beauty Adverts at Duke University's Rare Book and Manuscript Collection.
posted on Jan 30, 2006 - View this thread

adflip - "world's largest archive of classic print ads"
posted on Apr 15, 2005 - View this thread

The Evolution of Manufacturing is a collection of New York Times articles, providing a historical perspective on manufacturing operations in the U.S. The collection consists of 12 articles published between 1909 and 2000. It includes an article by Henry Ford himself, and an article by Thomas Edison based on his interview of Henry Ford. Interestingly, the collection is an advertisement for Peoplesoft.
posted on Dec 21, 2004 - View this thread

Specs spots are commericals shot by people who hope that they'll be considered for shooting real commercials. Because they are vying for attention, some of them can be pretty outrageous. This site allows you to rank them ala hotornot mode.

My personal favorite pertains to that "make a wish" ritual around blowing out birthday candles.
What are your favorites? (Spots themselves are Quicktime links)
posted on Aug 10, 2004 - View this thread

Joshua Green wrote an interesting and insightful piece regarding the current state of political advertisements. Here is an example of an ad by a media consultant he refers to, based in Pittsburgh. Another spin here. I've often wondered why they're so predictable. The Atlantic gives us a glimpse into poly. ad history and, quite possibly, its future.
posted on Jul 6, 2004 - View this thread

Google To Start Selling Banner Adverts From the that-didn't-take-too-long-department, Google's ad sales VP Tim Armstrong says Google will now start selling graphical banner adverts. One concession to their old mores is that, for now, the banner adverts will only appear on affiliated websites running their AdSense referral program (as does MeFi), and there is an opt-out. However... "We have no plans to show images on Google.com", said Mr. Armstrong "but we are not opposed to it".
posted on May 12, 2004 - View this thread

Toy Ads. Nostalgic for that old Hot Wheels tune up tower you never received as child? Can't recall the name of that one eyed doll your weird aunt gave you for your birthday? Toyadz.com has all the ads that made you drool when you were nine.
posted on Jan 1, 2004 - View this thread

A great PETA ad ...for me to poop on! Amusing recent campaign featuring Triumph the Insult Dog to promote spaying/neutering that is catching heat for a subtle Clay Aiken jab.
posted on Nov 20, 2003 - View this thread

Sex for Money, Money having Sex? Ban on Russian ads depicting euro having sex with dollar. Immoral or are they just dancing?
posted on Sep 24, 2003 - View this thread

Channel 118. The 118118 experience. [possibly nsfw]
posted on Aug 6, 2003 - View this thread

Bell System Memorial. State approved, centrally planned and controlled: no, not this, the old Bell System. Don't miss the photos (including the first car phone!) and ads (sometimes ironic). Offsite: the affiliated Telephone Tribute, a few old Bell ads from the Prelinger archives, and an entertaining US telephony history from Bruce Sterling's famous Hacker Crackdown.
posted on Mar 30, 2003 - View this thread

Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera . Amazing collection of posters, road maps, steamship and airline timetables, (more timetables here), post cards, luggage labels (more labels here and here), brochures and more. Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.) (Warning: the site is seriously painful to look at, but the content's good. Link via Coudal.)
posted on Mar 19, 2003 - View this thread

There's more than one way to skin swing a cat: Add the new Puma ads and upstanding PETA feminists have their work cut out for them. [vid.avi download thing; via Boing Boing.].
posted on Mar 11, 2003 - View this thread

Dude, You're Under Arrest Ben "Dell Dude" Curtis, was arrested in New York last night on charges of criminal possession of marijuana. Thanks to The Smoking Gun we now have something to make us laugh on a Monday.
posted on Feb 10, 2003 - View this thread

Freedomads.org is sponsoring a contest that challenges visitors to create video, print, or audio ads that "inspire people with an advertisement for freedom." How would you sell freedom?
posted on Jan 28, 2003 - View this thread

Beyond petroleum? British Petroleum’s recent $200-million makeover into sunny-logoed bp seems to respond to mounting concerns over pollution, global warming, and wars for oil. By advocating alternatives to the very product that has made it the world’s seventh-largest company, it also seems like economic suicide. In accordance with their environmental goals, they've helped release bald eagles in Manhattan and bring solar power to rural Tibet, but many remain unconvinced. Each bp ad ended with the same tagline: “It’s a start.” Is it?
posted on Dec 19, 2002 - View this thread

French McDonald's ads: Don't 'abuse fast food' - McDonald's France runs ads suggesting that children not eat its food more than once a week.
posted on Oct 31, 2002 - View this thread

So Exactly Why Doesn't Nicole Kidman Want This Commercial To Be Shown In The U.S.? Here in Portugal, for instance, you can't blink without seeing the ruddy thing. Movie stars increasingly have a very profitable but extremely embarrassing advertising life which they're understandbly keen to keep secret from the American market. Wonderful websites like Japander (do check out Jodie Foster's endorsements of the Honda Civic Ferio and Keri Cosmetics, won't you?) conspire to keep them deservedly humble. So why does this double standard exist? Do these movie stars really think that globalization (not to mention the Internet) is just a myth?
posted on Oct 5, 2002 - View this thread

Few Advertisers Use Pop-Ups (or do they?) "Though they seem to be everywhere on the Internet, pop-up advertisements are used by less than 10 percent of all companies that advertise online, according to a report from Nielsen//NetRatings." Do you buy this? Is this industry propaganda or a true description of what is out there? The sites I visit regularly all seem to have pop-ups (e.g. nytimes, espn, slate, theatlantic.com). For the last 1 month or so, ESPN seems to launch two pop-ups when I first visit them, in fact. What has your experience been?
posted on Sep 16, 2002 - View this thread

Steven. Steven. Steven. I can't get enough of this incredibly-cute-but-I-don't-normally-go-for-such-obvious-twinkiness pitchperson for Dell Computers. Apparently, neither can anyone else, as Steven (or more properly, actor Ben Curtis) has been Dell's most successful advertising, uh, tool ever. Why do we love him? His Bill'n'Ted vocabulary? His toothy grin? Whatever the reason, at least now I no longer have to glue myself to the television to watch his latest commercial overandoverandoverand Dude, I'll get a Dell if you deliver it to me personally. So to speak. Is it wrong to love a fictional character so much? Is there a support group? Any other MeFites have a strange attraction going on here? I can't be the only one, can I?
posted on Jul 9, 2002 - View this thread

I've been using Kazaa for about a year, but yesterday it spewed out a 30 second audio advertisement for a casino that you couldn't stop, and couldn't get rid of. Quite apart from getting me in deep piles of poo with my boss, surely this is going too far? Audio adverts you can't do anything about - maybe it is time to move on...
posted on May 14, 2002 - View this thread

More on the bad ads that seem to be going around the web. This time, I went to see what was on tv, and a Six Feet Under ad took over the entire screen. Talk about not being able to use the website.
posted on Mar 3, 2002 - View this thread

Yahoo! Explorer ads the wave of the future? (via RRE) Taking over your browsing in the name of advertising.
posted on Jul 30, 2001 - View this thread

Has anyone else seen this product advertised on TV lately and thought they were watching a fake SNL ad? Then comes that sinking feeling when you realize that it is real. It just started running on TV here in Virginia. Perhaps our median IQ finally reached a suitable level. Don't even get me started on the domain name!
posted on Apr 1, 2001 - View this thread

A Chicago Trib reporter logged all of the ads she saw in one day. It makes for an interesting and kind of scary read. [via obscurestore]
posted on Mar 22, 2001 - View this thread

CBS pulled this ad from the Superbowl. Which is a shame because I think it deserves a place on the Ad Critic Superbowl Top 10.
posted on Jan 30, 2001 - View this thread

Mastercard Wants to Silence Nader If you thought Ralph Nader's views on too much corporate power were too far out -- click this one. The corporate thugs are trying to shut him down.
posted on Aug 23, 2000 - View this thread