CSBG Archive
I Saw It Advertised One Day #28
We continue a MONTH of I Saw It Advertised One Day! Each day this January you’ll get a piece looking at advertisements in comic books over the decades that amused me for whatever reason. In each installment, we’ll take a look at three ads!
Here is an archive of all installments of this feature.
Enjoy!
I love how this 1950s scam is geared towards women instead of boys…
I mean, who is this geared towards?
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I think a few comic book artists must have seen this 1960s ad…
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It’s interesting to see how Flash was sold when he first got his series after his Showcase intro…
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That’s all for this installment! If you can think of some goofy comic book ads you’d like to see me feature here, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com. Do not make suggestions in the comment section, so that they can still be a surprise for future readers! In fact, I think I’ll just delete comments that contain future suggestions.
11 Comments
Ray
January 25, 2011 at 7:58 am
That Flash ad is cool. kinda makes me want to buy some reprints of old Flash comics.
jazzbo
January 25, 2011 at 10:26 am
Gotta love the “NO TALENT!” line in the 2nd ad. That seems like a selling point to me.
T.
January 25, 2011 at 10:42 am
I love how you leave it to us commenters to do the dirty work of naming names for you!
Matthew Johnson
January 25, 2011 at 11:55 am
The rhea, cheetah and duck hawk are kind of redundant, really.
suedenim
January 25, 2011 at 1:39 pm
It’s obvious to me that the Fashion Frocks ad is targeted at clubs for discreet young crossdressers. It’s a niche market, sure, but…. (For the curious, BTW, a “$10.98 dress” would be about 85 bucks in today’s dollars.)
suedenim
January 25, 2011 at 1:40 pm
That’s a great ad for the Flash – the animals seem redundant, sure, until you realize it means Flash can run at not only the speed of light, but FASTER than that!
buttler
January 25, 2011 at 2:18 pm
What I want to know is if he’s faster than three turtles: Fastback, the Crash and the Terrific Whatzit.
Dominic
January 25, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Are there four-footed birds? Yes, I know they mean running rather than flying but still…
Travis Pelkie
January 25, 2011 at 8:16 pm
Wow, that dress thing is a pyramid scheme! “I wore the dress, and told 2 friends, and they told 2 friends…” Actually the idea’s not bad, wear a “free” dress and then try to get your friends to buy dresses from this company through you. I wonder how successful they were. Probably not very, if they were advertising in comics…
That “Magic Art Reproducer” is funny. I KNOW I’ve seen a parody of it. In 1963, maybe?
As others have pointed out, the animals are kind of unnecessary to point out Flash is faster than light, but it’s kind of an “infinity plus one” thing, don’tcha think?
suedenim
January 25, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Huh, apparently Fashion Frocks lasted well into the ’70s… and STARTED in the ’20s.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/sets/72157616156059683/
Fashion Frocks even made parachutes during the war, and their building is now a registered historic building:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oesterlein_Machine_Company-Fashion_Frocks,_Inc._Complex
Dunno if they always had the business model described in this ad, though.
Brian Cronin
January 25, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Yeah, Sue, someone suggested the Fashion Frocks to me the other day, only describing a 1970s ad!