Having just passed my third year as a blogger and my 260^th post, I have to say that of all the things I’ve written about, “old” ads give me some of the best chuckles. 

They fall into more categories than I can mention, but no matter what they were selling I usually come back to the same question: What were they thinking? I know that for the era and audience these campaigns may have seemed like a good idea, but… really? 

Among my favorites are: Discontinued, or defunct products. The brands that are around today seem to have erased the fact that many years ago they had competition. Seeing the gum ad above — I don’t know how they thought selling gum called “Mint Cocktail” in a kid’s magazine could have been a wholesome idea. This was produced by the Bowman Gum Company in Philadelphia that was maybe better know for their gum packaged with sports cards.

Then there are the products meant to solve a problem, but the way they depict the problem is, well, a problem. Take a look at the ad for the bicycle braking mechanism. If Billy had only gone with “New Departure” maybe he wouldn’t have run down his little sister, or could that have been his future prom date? The Lysol ad is so over the top and really designed to extract fear from the homemaker, it is quite a graphic graphic.

“Before” and “after” ads are a lot of fun. In the days before software enhancers like Photoshop, it was much harder to create a realistic “after” no matter what the product. I liked the images for the ads above as much for the names as I do for their claims. The “Gray’s Specific” ad is one of the finest unintentional oxy-morons of 1884, and I don’t think I would ever buy anything from Dr Dye regardless of the spelling.

This was just a small sample of what is still out there waiting in attics and basements to be uncovered. I just hope I can get to it before time or the over- zealous spring cleaner does. If you want to see at least one more, take a look at this nasty baby that only Dr. Hand can fix.

Greg Van Antwerp is a Brookfield resident and blogger, who can be found on the weekends in search of a good “dig” or a good story.  You can read more about his adventures by visiting his blog.