Retropedia - A look at style and design through time: January 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

ATOMIC AGE ADVERTISING - Keeping Laundry Clean in 1950s America

Keeping America Clean

There's no getting around it - Atomic Age Advertising is over-the-top - exaggerated, bombastic and loud. And, that's why we love it. America during its finest period of unadulterated idealism.

Some of the priorities - a gas-guzzling beauty on wheels, all mod cons and a house that's spic and span. And what do the ad pitches for virtually every product share? The colourful boasting of speed, greater efficiency and brighter results.

Some of the greatest bragging rights belong to household cleaners. Witness the ecstasy, the shock and the endless joy that Tide, Oxydol, Spic and Span, Cheer, Duz and SOS deliver to the consumer ...

And we all know who that is ... the iconic 1950's Hausfrau. The very picture of happiness. Window into the '50's mindset here.

Because ... Clean = Good = Decent = Healthy = Respectable = Happiness

So, what to do in 50's America? Heck - make it easier for the woman doing all that dreary housework and while you're at it - convince her that it's actually fun.

Vintage Detergent Ads are becoming some of the most collectible print ads - known for their vibrancy, their hyperbole and their ... good clean fun.

To collect more original vintage ads, drop by ACME Vintage Limited.

Here comes the spin ...

Laundry Days

The war's over and now we've got Seismotite

Serious Stuff - Laundry

Felso - not named to last

The Agony and The Ecstasy

Oxydol - born in 1914. In the 1930s, Oxydol was the sponsor

of the Ma Perkins radio show. Yup, the first Soap Opera.

"You're about to see an accident happen ..."

To watch a great OXYDOL Commercial click here

DUZ - Because it duz.

"My husband, Bob's, shirt looks cleaner but it's

got a deeper kind of dirt. Body dirt - the dirt

that digs inside clothes."

DASH works on body dirt. Watch commercial here.

Soilax

Rinso defies Gravity and Dirt

Dooby

Promises of better days to come ...

More TIDE - You never had it so clean!

Nothing short of a Miracle

Next week ... Cleaner Surfaces

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Atomic Age Advertising - Food in the 1950s

One thing you can't argue: They don't advertise like they used to.

Visually spectacular, shamelessly over-the-top - who doesn't have a soft spot for Mid Century Advertising? The illustration talent was incomparable. Sadly, it was generally nameless and rarely acknowledged.

Vintage Advertising equals Eye Candy for the design savvy, the culturally curious and those with a sense of humour. Cheerful, vibrant, technicolor. Larger than life.

The 1950's - when everything was sweeter, tastier, easier and, of course, better.

Oh, and in Retro Advertising, exclamations are a must !!!

Over the next months, I'll be designing blogs exclusively devoted to the splendour and smarts of Vintage Advertising brought to you by The Twentieth century. Please stay tuned and visit again soon.

If you dig 1950s design, please check out Beauty and The Bomb

Drop by ACME Vintage Limited to see more. And begin, or add to, your collection now. Long live vintage advertising.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ACMEVintageLimited

Welcome to 1950's America.

All the food you'll ever want. And more.

ACME Vintage Limited

Slice and Serve - So easy in the '50s

BABY RUTH Candy Bar Ad - 1953

Cute Creepy Kids

Bird's Eye Orange Juice - Original Advertisement - 1950

The fine line between desire and madness

us vs. th3m

Shock and Awe. And, the requisite "!"

Kraft Mayonnaise Original Vintage Ad - 1950

But is it actually food, Mom?

Treet by Armour - 1958

Pop. Pop. Fizz. Fizz.

7 UP "The Family Drink"

Illustration vs. Photography (It's the technicolor that counts)

Chef Boyardee was founded by Ettore "Hector" Boiardi in 1928,
eventually moving the factory to Milton, Pennsylvania
(where tomato and mushroom growth was ample).
U.S. Military commissioned the company during WWII to
produce army rations and ran 24/7.

Chef Boyardee Ravioli - 1956

The redder ... the better

The word ketchup originates from the Chinese 'ke-tsiap,

a pickled fish sauce. The origin of its variation 'catsup' used

more commonly in the U.S.A. is unknown.

Old Advertising on blogspot

Amazing New Discoveries

Instant coffee: invented in 1890 in New Zealand by Mr. Strang.
Nescafe wasintroduced in 1938. And the high-vacuum freeze-dried variety
hit the world stage after WWII.

Sliced Bread Convenience

Did you know that there was a short-lived ban on sliced bread?
Yup - in 1943 as a war-time measure -
the rationale for this: that a ready-sliced loaf required heavier
wrapping than an unsliced one if it was not to dry out.