vintage advertising: turn of century

Showing posts with label turn of century. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Carter's Little Nerve Pills

These pills were popular in the late 1800's and were used for nervousness and sensitive stomachs, who knows what the ingredients were.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

turn of the century Quaker Oats advertisements

ad from 1897

ad from 1900

ad from 1902

Friday, August 31, 2012

BARNUM AND BAILEY CIRCUS POSTERS

Sunday, July 15, 2012

EARLY 20TH CENTURY PEARS SOAP ADVERTISEMENT

Monday, June 18, 2012

Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Wild West Show was formed in 1883 and lasted for 20 years. The show toured the world and was extremely popular. The poster are not as common as vintage circus posters,but the images are very attractive. Advance men would travel ahead of the show and plaster towns with the vibrant images advertising the acts and excitement of the entertainment.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Aunt Jemima

One of the early convenience products was pre-made pancake mix. In 1889 the first mix was developed by Missouri reporter Chris Rutt, who loved pancakes but didn’t want to make them from scratch. So he mixed up a big batch and started selling it in grocery stores, where it was a big failure. The reasoning was, why pay for something you could mix up more cheaply yourself?

That is where advertising comes in, it created a desire for the product by creating a popular spokesman. Rutt had seen a show with blackface comedians. The comedians, Baker and Farrell, had a popular act featuring Baker dressed up as a African American cook, this music accompanying this act was the tune “Aunt Jemima.”

Rutt took this idea and ran with it. Once the name was on the package the product started to sell locally and Rutt soon sold it to a national food concern. That company hired Nancy Green, an African American cook, to make and give away pancakes to visitors at the Chicago World’s Fair. She toured for the rest of her life as the living embodiment of Aunt Jemima. She was one of the earliest advertising icons in the United States. Fortunately, today the racism of the advertising concept has lead to many changes in the way the cook is portrayed.

1916 Advertisement

1918 Advertisement

1919 Advertisement

Monday, May 7, 2012

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?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

very early Jello ads 1902-1916

Very early on the Jello manufacturer's realized the value of advertising. Before their product gelatin desserts were very expensive to make and were really only for the wealthy. So the ads had to create a demand for something that most people have never tried and they started advertising very early. All these ads are from before WWI.