What You Really Got From Magazine Ads
Before Google came along, the tiny cryptic ad at the end of the magazine had a lot of potential. The seller may not be able to fully describe their product, but if the product is not very good, this may be a plus for them. Here are a few advertisements from the 1950s and beyond, and what you’ll get if you send for them.
Attract me
Announcement: If you can draw a caricature in an advertisement – usually the face of a cowboy, well-dressed woman, or other character in profile – you’ve got a chance for a $ 430 “scholarship”.
Reality: Art Instruction, Inc is a correspondence art school. They were selling and running real classes, although the New York Times reported in 2002 that each instructor watches over 1,000 students , so you probably won’t get much individual attention. In 2006, a prospective student said the company sent a representative to his home to see if he was good enough to earn a “scholarship” and take the course for free, but all he got was a tough sales pitch.
Price in today’s dollars: $ 430 then – that’s about $ 3700 now. The company has been in existence for 90 years and has just stopped accepting students as they plan to close next year. Their website lists the latest price at $ 4,285 for the full course, including dedicated textbooks.
2-way portable radio
Announcement: CHECKED – PROVEN – SIMPLIFIED – PRACTICAL.
Reality: You get a real radio – piecemeal or fully assembled, depending on how much you paid – but it wasn’t very good. “I remember when I was a rookie saw an ad for BN-1 and got offended by the word ‘newbie’ written on the poorest excuse for a lunch box with handles I could ever imagine,” wrote one amateur radio amateurs. in 2009 . Another added more condescendingly:
I prefer to view these gizmotron products as a kind of friendly joke. The buyer somewhere in his head realizes that miracles cannot be expected, but they can be hoped for. The company provides an inexpensive learning experience (and I don’t mean you get ripped off !!) and also makes some money.
Price in today’s dollars: $ 130 for DIY kit, $ 174 assembled according to this inflation calculator .
Dynamic stress
Advertising: Charles Atlas promises to give you the same amazing body as his. This ad campaign has over the years gone from being a 97-pound weakling to defeating girls who don’t date skinny guys and returning to the bully who kicked sand in your face. Atlas can make you a “new person” in just 7 days.
Charles Atlas was a better known competitor to the BODY-TONE system that I personally tested .
Actually: you get a strength training brochure and a strength training brochure about the same.
Commentator ddyte dug up some literature on Charles Atlas to share with us, for which I am eternally grateful (or at least seven days). Here is the Charles Atlas Body Building System brochure . It details some of the exercises you can do at home. She also advises getting enough sleep, staying positive, and listening to good music.
In the nutrition lesson, students are encouraged to avoid ice cold drinks, white bread, pastries, fatty meats, spicy foods, sugar, white rice (brown is normal), coffee, and tea. After all, you don’t want impurity in your blood. Protein, vegetables, whole grains, and warm water are allowed.
Price in today’s dollars: unclear. You can buy a copy today for $ 32 on Amazon .
Mark Eden bust designer
Advertising: The feminine version of bodybuilding advertisements, this 1960s product was touted as a way to enlarge your breasts, without any real information about what it would include.
Reality: Bust Developer was a little pink exercise gadget , like the tiny Thighmaster you hold in your hands. Squeeze it in a variety of ways and you will work your pectoral muscles (pectoral muscles underneath your chest). It might increase your breast size a little, but it won’t give you the body that the advertised women have. The United States Postal Service announced in 1966 that developer rackets were mail fraud , but litigation continued until 1981 when the product was finally discontinued.
Price in today’s dollars: about $ 50.
X-ray vision
Advertising: Promises “illusory” X-ray vision. Some of the commercials show a guy looking at bones in his hand; others mean you can see through women’s clothing.
Reality: “Illusory” right. This is an illusion, as explained in the small print above. (However, some of the advertisements were too small to fit in.) The glasses instead of lenses have paper with a small hole in the paper and a pen glued to the viewing area. When you look through the feather, you get a kind of double vision, which makes it look (if you have a lot of imagination) as if you are seeing bones in your hand.
Price in today’s dollars: about $ 10.