Advertisements for myself
The Trump campaign is paying for TV ads to soothe Donald Trump.
30-D, three letters
Chicken à la King in a 1957 ad.
Pharm-speak
“Fainting can also happen.”
Moon-like
Paying a little more attention to the moon made me think about the moon-like flavor of the supper in a Ritz ad that I clipped some time ago.
A slogan with legs
I don’t always wear pants, but when I do I prefer Carhartts.
Three mascots
In today’s Zippy, three mascots: Gertrude, L’il Softee, and Good Sam.
White Rose Tea
Two ads.
Myrtle Ave. Drug Co.
Whoever owned this building knew something about monetizing: it looks like a miniature Times Square, minus the LEDs.
From Artie to Zippy
“Help! I’m an an advertising mascot trapped inside an artichoke!”
“Artists wear Wranglers”
A goofy 1962 ad.
Kind of Kind of Blue
A dog-food commercial with faux Kind of Blue (specifically, "So What") as background music? Clearly, the commercial was made so that I would notice it and then say something about it.
All ice cream, all the time
A 1925 advertisement touting Hydrox Ice Cream as a food you can live on.
Perimeter oscillations
I’m not sure how I came to notice this document, a 2008 working proposal for a redesign of the Pepsi logo by “brand guru” Peter Arnell. Newsweek deemed it real. If it’s not real, it’s at least real gone.
“A Pantomime Pen Talk”
Store-window automatons with fountain pens.
Crafted, baked
I noticed this morning: Pepperidge Farm now packages its bread as “Crafted Baked Goods.”
“My Bathroom”
An ode to solitude: Sid Siegel’s “My Bathroom,” from the industrial musical The Bathrooms are Coming! (1969), sung by Patt Stanton Gjonola
Knives for sale, 70% off
Every pane in the Overton window is broken, and the window’s casing has been ripped from the wall and thrown in a dumpster. The dumpster is burning.
Wrinkles
We were turning the pages of an (unsolicited) catalogue this weekend when we started laughing, because we realized that every item of clothing in the catalogue was wrinkled. That must be what they mean by Effortlessly Cool®.
The infra-red sandwich
A Life ad, 1956.
O.K. Knee Pants
A 1926 ad.
In search of lost commercials
Did you know that “so many of the melodies of well-known popular songs were actually written by the great masters”? I did, but I had no idea who was speaking those words.
Electric Light Tie!
One more item from the Ace-Hy Sign Co.
Of mice and medicine men
Two small ads from Biillboard, 1948.
“I Like my Sleep!”
Al Smith for Pullman.
Menthol trickery
Here’s a deeply researched and deeply disturbing book: Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021), by Princeton historian Keith Wailoo. Wailoo begins with Dave Chappelle’s question: “Why do black people love menthols so much?” The joke answer, of course: “Nobody knows.” But tobacco companies and advertising consultants know.
A pencil truck
In Somerville, Massachusetts, a giant (non-working) pencil atop a truck.
Maureen O’Hara for Lipton Tea
A 1946 ad.
Jane Lynch for Illinois
Jane Lynch has directed a series of TV commercials promoting Illinois tourism.
Sweatin’ your nextra to the boo
It sounds to me like “You’re sweatin’ your nextra to the boo.”
Klarna’s a —
“Now you can pay for all of your joy-sparking moments with Klarna.”