20th Century Boy

valueaddedwater — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:15:47 +0000

I'm not a historian, but I do have an interest in early 20th Century history and society and technology
I especially love all the glamour and artwork and sheer care and joy that went into crafting some of the adverts for even the most mundane of stuff.
This is not done so much today. I and people I work with shudder in horror when we hear the name "Nadine Baggot" and "Pentapeptides", but not all companies chase the new ideas and disregard the old.

An example of this especially this time of the year, is the seasonal push by companies like the Coca Cola Corporation. They've been around for a while, so have a very large back catalogue of stuff to use. Nostalga sells especially if you're marketing carbonated soft drinks. However its sanitised for a modern audience, as although people like the idea of the old days, they often view it with a healthy dose of soft focus from the safety of 50 years into the future.

Anyway I digress.

I was searching around some old valve radio sites when I found a link to this wonderful resource
The Ad*Access Project at Duke University

Shall I say retro nerd heaven?
I keep thinking though if I let our marketing team loose with the claims that used to be permissible in the days before the MHRA and Trading Standards...... I would be in it deep. Up to my nostrils in fact
As an example I leave you with this delight from 1929.
Happy days!

An Update!
Whilst browsing through Badscience.net, I found a post with links by someone under the name of Dibsy
The link went to here
Scroll down until you find the all time favourite of "Thor-radia" cream and powder!
Ladies! get a radiant glow with the special actives of Thorium and Radium!
A product for the time of your (Half) life!

adaccess-project « WordPress.com Tag Feed

20th Century Boy