Coca Cola advertisements from the 20's and 30's

1920'S ADVERTISEMENTS

1925 ADVERTISEMENT

1929 ADVERTISEMENT

1930'S ADVERTISEMENT

1935 ADVERTISEMENT

WWII Coca Cola advertisements

Coca Cola had always advertised extensively in magazines using contemporary themes. WWII was no exception and these ads featured soldiers making new friends in new places.

7-up has been around since the 1920’s and was originally a patent medicine. It has a lemon-lime flavor quite unlike the more famous Coke. These are some magazine advertisements from the 1950’s.

Vapor Bath cabinet

A vapor bath uses some sort of vapor produced by heat or other means to treat illnesses. The classic example is a steam bath, but it used to be popular to have vapor cabinets in the home. You would place chemicals in the cabinet and then seal yourself up inside. I really don't see how this would work. If you have a bad cold, some medicinal vapors could help your congestion, but this cabinet doesn't allow the vapor to reach your nose. I suppose you could absorb some medicine into the skin inside the cabinet, but the benefit would be rather limited.

It's always a bad sign when 1 product or medicine cures a wide variety of diseases. It is very unlikely that this 1 cabinet could do this much. It supposedly cures rheumatism, neuralgia, catarrh, asthma, influenza, typhoid, congestion, obesity, stomach troubles,kidney disease, liver disease, skin disorders, and blood diseases.

The cabinet obviously didn't do all of that, but it is rather expensive, so the people who actually bought the product might not be very high. So the harm done by the cabinet isn't as bad as this next supposed cure.

I must say I appreciate the absolute confidence of this ad. They claim to have an actual letter on file and will pay if that turns out not to be correct. But we don't have an asthma cure today so what are the chances they had an actual cure over 130 years ago? Now coughing up blood is a pretty extreme system, even if you don't like a doctor I think that symptom would drive anyone to a doctor, not writing a request for information.

The information is free, but I bet the treatment was rather expensive and very ineffective. I do like the detail about the cold feet though. Adding that 1 symptom makes the whole ad sound just a little more a scientific doesn't it?

early Malt O Meal advertisements

I have always liked Malt O Meal and I was surprised at how long the hot cereal has been around. These are just a couple early print advertisements.

One of the earliest ads, from 1925

This ad is from the early 1940's

This ad is from the early 1950's

Really odd health products

Back in the late 1800's a demonstration of health and wealth was obesity. Only the rich and successful could afford to eat well enough to be heavyset. Only the wealthy didn't work hard at physical jobs that would burn lots of calories. So heavyset equals success, just like today the phrase is, you can't be too rich or too thin. But some people had a hard time getting fat enough to look like a success, so this odd product was created to fill the gap.

AS FAT AS PIGS!!!! And that was a selling point, how times have changed. Of course this next ad, from 1978, about a diet product is pretty bad also, mostly just because of the unfortunate name of AYDS.

Jello recipe booklets

Since Jello was a new product people really didn't have any idea what to do with it. Making the basic product was easy enough, but how to make a salad, pie or dessert needed some recipes. So Jello distributed millions of free recipe booklets through stores and by mail.

1920's Jello ads

Since Gelatin was a new product for most people, before it was very labor intensive and really only for the wealthy, extensive advertising was necessary to create a desire for the product. Jello was advertised heavily in magazines of the day and these are some of the 1920's advertisements.