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Memories and so much more.... and not the boring bits!!
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The original and most comprehensive web site for remembering some of the highlights of the 20th Century "Hundreds of videos" and tons of material for your enjoyment. Over three hundred links to other relevant websites - new material added frequently. From Fashion to Vaudeville theatre through to Old Time Radio Film and film stars Comics to Tanks through to Trains Cars & Motorbikes, Inventions, The War Years: WW1, WW2, the Vietnam War  Weapons, History of pop music, Aircraft and Warships The Roaring Twenties to the Swinging Sixties  and many other subjects from the 1910s to the 1990s.  If you spot the "deliberate" mistake, email us with a correction. With more than 89 pages and counting! plus hundreds of videos, and links to other relevant websites. If you weren’t around in the 1900’s, then we hope we’ll give you some idea of what you missed out on!

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More vintage advertising some your granny would remember and some we just would not approve of today!! It's mind blowing just what advertisers got away with!!

Cola ad vintage

Born in the Carolinas in 1898, Pepsi-Cola has a long and rich history. The drink is the invention of Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist and drugstore owner in New Bern, North Carolina. The summer of 1898, as usual, was hot and humid in New Bern, North Carolina. So a young pharmacist named Caleb Bradham began experimenting with combinations of spices, juices, and syrups trying to create a refreshing new drink to serve his customers. He succeeded beyond all expectations because he invented the beverage known around the world as Pepsi-Cola.  Caleb Bradham knew that to keep people returning to his pharmacy, he would have to turn it into a gathering place. He did so by concocting his own special beverage, a soft drink. His creation, a unique mixture of kola nut extract, vanilla and rareoils, became so popular his customers named it "Brad's Drink." Caleb decided to rename it "Pepsi-Cola," and advertised his new soft drink. People responded, and sales of Pepsi-Cola started to grow, convincing him that he should form a company to market the new beverage.

In 1902, he launched the Pepsi-Cola Company in the back room of his pharmacy, and applied to the U.S. Patent Office for a trademark. At first, he mixed the syrup himself and sold it exclusively through soda fountains. But soon Caleb recognized that a greater opportunity existed to bottle Pepsi so that people could drink it anywhere.

The business began to grow, and on June 16, 1903, "Pepsi-Cola" was officially registered with the U.S. Patent Office. That year, Caleb sold 7,968 gallons of syrup, using the theme line "Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion." He also began awarding franchises to bottle Pepsi to independent investors, whose number grew from just two in 1905, in the cities of Charlotte and Durham, North Carolina, to 15 the following year, and 40 by 1907. By the end of 1910, there were Pepsi-Cola franchises in 24 states.

Pepsi-Cola's first bottling line resulted from some less-than-sophisticated engineering in the back room of Caleb's pharmacy. Building a strong franchise system was one of Caleb's greatest achievements. Local Pepsi-Cola bottlers, entrepreneurial in spirit and dedicated to the product's success, provided a sturdy foundation. They were the cornerstone of the Pepsi-Cola enterprise. By 1907, the new company was selling more than 100,000 gallons of syrup per year.

Growth was phenomenal, and in 1909 Caleb erected a headquarters so spectacular that the town of New Bern pictured it on a postcard. Famous racing car driver Barney Oldfield endorsed Pepsi in newspaper ads as "A bully drink...refreshing, invigorating, a fine bracer before a race." The previous year, Pepsi had been one of the first companies in the United States to switch from horse-drawn transport to motor vehicles, and Caleb's business expertise captured widespread attention. He was even mentioned as a possible candidate for Governor. A 1913 editorial in the Greensboro Patriot praised him for his "keen and energetic business sense."


Pepsi-Cola enjoyed 17 unbroken years of success. Caleb now promoted Pepsi sales with the slogan, "Drink Pepsi-Cola. It will satisfy you." Then cameWorld War I, and the cost of doing business increased drastically. Sugar prices see sawed between record highs and disastrous lows, and so did the price of producing Pepsi-Cola. Caleb was forced into a series of business gambles just to survive, until finally, after three exhausting years, his luck ran out and he was bankrupted. By 1921, only two plants remained open. It wasn't until a successful candy manufacturer, Charles G. Guth, appeared on the scene that the future of Pepsi-Cola was assured. Guth was president of Loft Incorporated, a large chain of candy stores and soda fountains along the eastern seaboard. He saw Pepsi-Cola as an opportunity to discontinue an unsatisfactory business relationship with the Coca-Cola Company, and at the same time to add an attractive drawing card to Loft's soda fountains. He was right. After five owners and 15 unprofitable years, Pepsi-Cola was once again a thriving national brand.

One oddity of the time, for a number of years, all of Pepsi-Cola's sales were actually administered from a Baltimore building apparently owned by Coca-Cola, and named for its president. Within two years, Pepsi would earn $1 million for its new owner. With the resurgence came new confidence, a rarity in those days because the nation was in the early stages of a severe economic decline that came to be known as the Great Depression.

 

Today we are inundated with advertising everywhere we go. From TV and radio advertising, to internet and billboard advertising, its almost impossible to go one day without seeing some form of advertising. Before modern advertising, companies had to work with what they had in order to advertise. Broad media outlets either did not exist or were not used by many. Other than newspapers, companies did not have broad access to consumers as much as they do today.
So how did some of these old companies manage to grow so large before the days of TV and radio ads? Many chose the medium of tin signs. Today we know them as vintage signs or antique signs. These colorful painted signs advertised everything from soda and beer to oil and laundry detergent.
Antique auto signs have become popular to collect. Of course there are vintage signs made by Ford, GM and Dodge, but if you're lucky you can find antique tin signs from companies that no longer exist. Vintage and antique signs have become a very popular item to collect. For history fans, antique tin signs offer a glimpse into a simpler time and give insight into how business used to be. Why Would Companies Choose Tins Signs? Tin signs were a great form of advertising. People could hand them up inside or outside of business establishments and they did the selling. They could be mailed to places where they could be displayed and it would benefit both the company and the retailer. Obviously tin signs worked as an advertising medium since many of the signs still exist and many of the companies that used them are still in business.

Consider popular antique tin signs made by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, as well as Quaker State and Ford Motor Company. These signs still exist and many are in original condition, which makes them popular with collectors
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Woman Can Open It.

Due to the complexity of the human mind, it has various levels of consciousness: the state of dreaming, conscious-rational and lastly the subconscious level. This last level is one which is incapable of logic or reasoning abilities, and cannot differentiate between what is real and what is fictional.
Subliminal messages sent into the subconscious mind provide it with the basis to grow the message into reality. It is a form of controlling your thoughts, as there is a link of communication between the subconscious and the conscious mind, allowing it to affect each other. Hence, there has been much controversy surrounding the usage of these subliminal messages, as hidden persuasive messages have been used to manipulate the audience. This has been especially noted in commercials and advertising, and in rock music. There has been much criticism on the use of insidious subliminal messages to increase profits.
Subliminal messages used in advertising or subliminal advertising, are usually in the form of brief visual or audio messages that your mind does not consciously register what it has seen or heard. There is usually a less than 25% chance that the message will be picked up by the conscious, and is used to provide stimulus for action.
Subliminal advertising does exist. However, very few marketing agencies endeavor to insert such messages due to the powerful impact that they can exert on the audience, which would result in overwhelming negative press that would be received if the subliminal message was detected. This outweighs any potential benefit that the subliminal advertising may bring.
According to an April 2006 issue of the New Scientist, research has proven that subliminal advertising messages do work, under the right conditions. The researchers also found that priming only works when the prime is goal-relevant. In plain English, this means you’re likely to buy a product that quenches your thirst only if you were already thirsty anyway. Subliminal messages are thus more useful in priming a target audience to choose one brand over another, rather than in creating an actual need for the product.
Whilst it is not yet sufficiently proven that the brief subliminal messages can affect your behavior without your awareness of itPsychology Articles, it is still debatable if subliminal advertising can be more effective than normal means of promotional communications which people are consciously aware of. 

schlitz-beer ad

Posters as a medium to advertise a product or an event or to make a political point have been around for centuries. After 1870 thought with the invention of new printing techniques such as lithography it started to be possible to print posters cheaply and quickly  with more colours and details hence allowing more artistic expression. Creating advertising posters was a good way for any struggling artist to make some cash, so much that some would be painters spent most of their artistic career making posters.
At the same time a good and colourful design attracts the potential customers attention and can make a product more memorable.Toulouse Lautrec is certainly the most famous early poster artists but he was followed during the Belle Epoque by artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Grasset and Cheret and many others. From France poster art spread to other countries and became popular to advertise basically anything from movies to consumer goods, from events to travel. Advertising posters from the first half of the century are now all collectible and some can be worth a lot of money. Visually strong political posters became popular again in the 1960s.
If you don't want to invest in an original vintage advertising poster you can still buy posters and prints of these posters at very affordable prices and they will give a touch of colour and class to your wall and home decor.

gay

The first known advertisement in the USA was for the snuff and tobacco products of P. Lokllard and Company and was placed in the New York daily paper in 1789. Local and regional newspapers were used because of the small-scale production and transportation of these goods. The first real brand name to become known on a bigger scale in the USA was "Bull Durham" which emerged in 1868, with the advertising placing the emphasis on how easy it was "to roll your own". The development of color lithography in the late 1870s allowed the companies to create attractive images to better present their products. This led to the printing of pictures onto the cigarette cards, previously only used to stiffen the packaging but now turned into an early marketing concept.  By the last quarter of the 19th century, magazines such as Punch carried advertisements for different brands of cigarettes, snuff, and pipe tobacco. Advertising was significantly helped by the distribution of free or subsidized branded cigarettes to troops during World War I and World War II. Before the 1970s, most tobacco advertising was legal in the United States and most European nations. In the United States, in the 1950s and 1960s, cigarette brands were frequently sponsors of television shows—most notably shows such as To Tell the Truth and I've Got a Secret. One of the most famous television jingles of the era came from an advertisement for Winston cigarettes. The slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!" proved to be catchy, and is still quoted today. When used to introduce Gunsmoke (gun = smoke), two gun shots were heard in the middle of the jingle just when listeners were expecting to hear the word "cigarette". Other popular slogans from the 1960s were "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!," which was used to advertise Tareyton cigarettes, and "I'd Walk a Mile for a Camel".    In 1954, tobacco companies ran the ad "A Frank Statement." The ad was the first in a campaign to dispute reports that smoking cigarettes could cause lung cancer and had other dangerous health effects.

In the 1950s, manufacturers began adding filter tips to cigarettes to remove some of the tar and nicotine as they were smoked. "Safer," "less potent" cigarette brands were also introduced. Light cigarettes became so popular that, as of 2004, half of American smokers preferred them over regular cigarettes,   According to The Federal Government’s National Cancer Institute (NCI), light cigarettes provide no benefit to smokers' health.  In 1964, the Surgeon General of the United States released the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health. It was based on over 7000 scientific articles that linked tobacco use with cancer and other diseases. This report led to laws requiring warning labels on tobacco products and to restrictions on tobacco advertisements. As these began to come into force, tobacco marketing became more subtle, with sweets shaped like cigarettes put on the market, and a number of advertisements designed to appeal to children, particularly those featuring Joe Camel resulting in increased awareness and uptake of smoking among children. However, restrictions did have an effect on adult quit rates, with its use declining to the point that by 2004, nearly half of all Americans who had ever smoked had stopped.

woman rug

If you have a toothache you would likely receive some much needed relief from cocaine toothache drops. Yes, from cocaine toothache drops! These substances are not legal today, but many decades ago they were and were embraced by kids and their parents. It is quite surprising that when cocaine was first discovered it was considered to be a miracle drug and companies that sold products with cocaine as an ingredient actively advertised this. Other illegal drugs today were also used in preparations including heroin and morphine. In fact, morphine was used in a syrup to soothe infants and calm them during the early days. Soon it was obvious that many of the products were habit forming and ingredients like cocaine, morphine, heroin, were removed from said products or they were no longer offered. That’s what happened to cocaine toothache drops because they weren’t effective without the cocaine! Coca Cola survived, but it also removed cocaine from its ingredient list.

The reason cocaine toothache drops were effective is because cocaine is known to be a local anesthetic that is quite effective. In fact, in the early days cocaine was used as an anesthetic. Today, cocaine is no longer used as an anesthetic by the medical field simply because it has side effects that are not desirable like mood elevation and euphoria. As a result, cocaine toothache drops were popular with parents, kids, and everyone in between simply because they not only relieved the pain but they also improved the sufferer’s mood! There were even throat drops that contained cocaine to help teachers, singers, and others who spoke regularly to help their sore throat in addition to giving them extra energy and a mood booster.

 

 

vintage advertisment

“Have It Your Way”, “Just Do It”, “Ipod, Therefore I Am”, “Reach Out and Touch Someone”, “It’s Everywhere You Want To Be”, “Finger Lickin’ Good”, “Got Milk?”, “Be All You Can Be”--We have heard these slogans many times during the course of a day in some fashion or other. What they all have in common is that they are directed toward teenagers. Teenagers are probably more influenced by advertising than any other age group, and they are really not aware of it.

palmolive soap

While advertising generated modern anxieties about its social and ethical implications, it nevertheless acquired a new centrality in the 1920s. Consumer spending–fueled in part by the increased availability of consumer credit–on automobiles, radios, household appliances, and leisure time activities like spectator sports and movie going paced a generally prosperous 1920s. Advertising promoted
these products and services. The rise of mass circulation magazines, radio broadcasting and to a lesser extent motion pictures provided new media for advertisements to reach consumers. President Calvin Coolidge pronounced a benediction on the business of advertising in a 1926 speech: “Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is a great power that has been intrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of regeneration and redemption of mankind.”

stil-vodka-ad

If you love to collect advertising and old advertisements, then turn to the internet and the re-use centers, and your local newspaper. A great place to start, is the re-use centers, flea markets, second hand stores, and garage sales. Make sure to be dressed comfortable, in older clothes, because you will be doing some digging, through old boxes etc! Most of the re-use centers will have old magazines in boxes, that you will have to dig through. This is a good place to start because many people who are clearing out aging relatives homes, don't know what to do with the collections of older magazines, books etc that may have been accumulating in some basements for years, so they will dump them off at these re-use centers. Many are pack rats, which of course is good for you, if you are looking for older advertising.

Another way, is to place an ad in your local paper, that you are looking for older magazines and newspapers (as an example) and you are willing to come and pick them up. There are people who will take you up on that offer just to get boxes of old magazines out of their basement.

Once you have located some great ads, or magazines, or labels, take your treasures home and put them in al album right away, somewhere flat and away from sunlight, and try to find out as much information about the ad that you can, don't leave them laying around the house like clutter either!.. make sure to do something with them right away, take out the ad and discard the parts you don't want, and do that right away, or you will end up with the same clutter as the houses you took them from!

With magazines, pull or carefully cut out the entire page of the ad, this way there should be a date on the page (hopefully) and then place it carefully in a album with plastic sheeting to protect it. If vintage magazine advertisements are your passion, then why not have themed albums, showing ads for "fishing" or "hunting" or "household" that type of thing.

You can also start a business with this collection of vintage advertising, as this has become a popular hobby. If you have exhausted your local re-use centers, garage sales, etc, then why not try shopping online?.. This way you can get advertisements from all over the world and expand your collection. You don't even need to leave your house. Just make sure to catalogue and label your albums. Collecting vintage magazine ads, will take up less space in your home, as you place the albums on shelves etc... now if you are collecting large vintage restaurant signs, then you may need a bigger house

safe revolver

The era of the vintage pin up girls is generally accepted as starting from the late 1930s and lasting until the early 1960s. Representations of the female form have always been a popular form of art, from the day that prehistoric man first picked up a piece of charcoal and drew his mate on a cave wall, but it was to be many millions of years later before it became a form of commercial pop art.
It can reasonably be assumed that the popularity of the pinup girl as we know her grew in line with the development of the popular media, and the movies were likely the start of it all. The famous stars were often given nicknames, such as Clara Bow (the 'It Girl'), the 'Blonde Bombshell', Jean Harlow and Lana Turner, known as 'the Sweater Girl'. Their photographs were also much prized, because cameras were not the domain of the ordinary person in the earlier parts of the 20th century.
Had you lived during these early years in the development of cinematography and photography, the representations of your favorite stars would have been much sought after. You would have prized a photograph of your favorite movie star, although you would not have recognized it as being a 'pin up' because the term did not become part of the English language until 1941.
In fact, the era of the vintage pin up girls really kicked off with the Second World War in Europe in 1939 and Asia in 1941, when first the British and then the American forces pinned photographs of their favorite stars to their barrack walls, locker doors and even to the sides of their foxholes and trenches during battle.
The vintage pin up girls of that era included 'The Profane Angel' (Carole Lombard), the Girl with the Million Dollar Legs (Betty Grable) and all of the above mentioned stars. Singer Vera Lynn also figured prominently on British walls, but a major reason for their popularity was that they offered hope and a sense of glamour to men who might die shortly, and also a contact with home when they were thousands of miles away fighting a faceless enemy.
Many men also posted up pictures of their mom or girlfriend, but Betty, Gloria (Swanson) or Carole was also there, along with Vivien Leigh after the 1939 production of 'Gone With the Wind'. In fact, the term 'pin up girls' is believed to have been first used in 1941 simply, because these actresses and singers were pinned up on their walls.
It was not the first time that movie stars were pinned up on men's walls, but it was recognized as the vintage pin up girls era because of the sheer volume of pinups covering untold walls all over Europe and the Far East. Rather than drop off once hostilities had ceased it continued, although eventually in a different form, and is still alive to this day. Habits die hard, and as stated above men didn't stop collecting pinups just because the war had ended, only the 1950s saw the beginnings of the mass production of scantily dressed females intended only to titivate, where previously the initial veteran pin up girls had been no more than promotional takes, designed to sell movies. In using the word 'initial', there are no doubts that many of the later photographs circulated during the war years were taken specifically for the troops and intended to be 'pinned up'! The post-war years brought with them an upsurge in consumerism and advertising, and the pin up girls were detected as great advertising subjects. The artist Haddon Sunblom developed the idea of the scantily dressed 'normal girl' promoting products such as showers and underwear, which was a break with the previous tradition in that professional models were portrayed as 'the girl next door', rather than using well known celebrities (though the term 'celeb' was yet to be devised). Playboy Magazine's 1959 centerfold of Marilyn Monroe wearing nothing but Chanel No 5 was the beginning of the end of the vintage pin up girls, and the beginning of the professional pinups, or nude photographs aimed specifically at men, although it would be another 11 years before actual pubic hair was permitted to be legal displayed in publications on general sale. Previously, 'certain parts' had been covered by arms or carefully posed legs. The years of the vintage pin up girls did not last long, because World War II was followed by a general sigh of relief and the beginnings of the permissive society where the 'slightly naughty' became  commonplace, and the era of the nude calendar was just around the corner. This brought an end to the innocence that could be excited by a flash of cleavage and, and also an end to vintage pin up girls and the beginning of the professional nude models.

Lard advertisment

Vintage posters or prints can make a huge difference to your home decor. Well-placed and displayed in quality frames, vintage posters become real eye-catchers that can say a lot about your home to your visitors.

Let's begin with some basics. What are vintage posters or vintage prints? They range from advertising posters to ornamental prints or works of art. The term 'vintage' reveals that they not only come from a bygone era, but more importantly that they capture something of that bygone era, whether it be a mood, style, idea or practice of the time.

This is precisely why reproduction vintage posters are so popular nowadays. It is that flavour of the past, that vintage reference, that people want in the form of images on the walls of their home. Let's face it, nowadays life for most people is hectic, stressful and tiring. Vintage poster prints hark back to a time when things at least seemed more simple, more easy-going and relaxed.

By looking so different from modern images, vintage posters and images also provide that element which is something almost of the exotic, a glimpse into another way of life no longer accessible to the inhabitant of the modern world. It is this that generates interest too, especially in the eye of the visitor to a home with vintage artwork on its walls -- yes, vintage posters are certainly a talking point.

So what kinds of vintage posters are available? They cover a vast range of subject areas, and of course you should go for those that specifically interest you. Amongst the most popular poster prints of this 'olde world' category are vintage bicycle posters. As vintage bicycles were often so different in design from modern cycles, vintage cycling posters often present fascinating insights into the past, as well as conjuring up nostalgic, sometimes comical, and even occasionally risque images.

Another popular category of vintage posters is Vintage French Posters. It is of course the reputation of France for sophisticated culture and art that makes this poster category so popular. Within this category you will find posters covering diverse subjects such as the Moulin Rouge, Chamonix vintage skiing posters,old Nice and Cannes travel, cafe society posters, Vogue magazine covers, cheeses and even Air France. One of the most popular and delightful images in this group is the 'Ballooning over Paris' poster, complete with the Eiffel Tower and a wide landscape of old-fashioned hot air balloons. I provide access links leading to all of these poster categories at the foot of this article.

Other vintage poster art comes in the form of vintage sports posters, vintage wine posters, cats, old santa posters, political images, Rock 'n' Roll posters and many more.

So, now you know how to give your home that sophisticated yet care-free look. But note that the difference between using vintage posters framed as opposed to unframed is a large one. While an unframed vintage poster is acceptable in the kitchen, in more formal areas of the house framing is essential if you are to create a chic and sophisticated look. The links below will direct you to the leading internet poster company that will enable you to order your posters either framed or unframed.

Nipple bra

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as HIV/AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation and deforestation.  Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest—it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes." Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy.
Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives.  In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their required public service announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers. Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and II under the direction of more than one government. During WWII President Roosevelt commissioned the creation of The War Advertising Council (now known as the Ad Council) which is the nations largest developer of PSA campaigns on behalf of government agencies and non-profit organizations.

old adverts

The Nike brand has become so strong as to place it in the rarified air of recession-proof consumer branded giants, in the company of Coca- Cola, Gillette and Proctor & Gamble. Brand management is one of Nike’s many strengths. Consumers are willing to pay more for brands that they judge to be superior in quality, style and reliability. A strong brand allows its owner to expand market share, command higher prices and generate more revenue than its competitors. With its “Just Do It” campaign and strong product, Nike was able to increase its share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent to 43 percent, from $877 million in worldwide sales to $9.2 billion in the ten years between 1988 and 1998. Nike spent $300 million on overseas advertising alone; most of it centered around the “Just Do It” campaign. The success of the campaign is that much more remarkable when one considers that an estimated 80 percent of the sneakers sold in the U.S. are never used for the activities for which they have been designed.

old advert

Advertisements in colonial America were most frequently announcements of goods on hand, but even in this early period, persuasive appeals accompanied dry descriptions. Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette reached out to readers with new devices like headlines, illustrations, and advertising placed next to editorial material. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century advertisements were not only for consumer goods. A particularly disturbing form of early American advertisements were notices of slave sales or appeals for the capture of escaped slaves. (For examples of these ads, visit theVirginia Runaways Project site at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/runaways/) Historians have used these advertisements as sources to examine tactics of resistanceand escape, to study the health, skills, and other characteristics of enslaved men and women, and to explore slaveholders’ perceptions of the people they held in bondage. Despite the ongoing “market revolution,” early and mid- nineteenth-century advertisements rarely demonstrate striking changes in advertising appeals. Newspapers almost never printed ads wider than a single column and generally eschewed  illustrations and even special typefaces. Magazine ad styles were also restrained, with most publications segregating advertisements on the back pages. Equally significant, until late in the nineteenth century, there were few companies mass producing branded consumer products. Patent medicine ads proved the main exception to this pattern. In an era when conventional medicine seldom provided cures, manufacturers of potions and pills vied for consumer attention with large, often outrageous, promises and colourful, dramatic advertisements.


In the 1880s, industries ranging from soap to canned food to cigarettes introduced new production techniques, created standardized products in unheard-of quantities, and sought to find and persuade buyers. National advertising of branded goods emerged in this period in response to profound changes in the business environment. Along with the manufacturers, other businesses also turned to
advertising. Large department stores in rapidly-growing cities, such as Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia and New York, Macy’s in New York, and Marshall Field’s in Chicago, also pioneered new advertising styles. For rural markets, the Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward mail-order catalogues offered everything from buttons to kits with designs and materials for building homes to Americans who lived in the countryside–a majority of the U.S. population until about 1920. By one commonly used measure, total advertising volume in the United States grew from about $200 million in 1880 to nearly $3 billion in 1920.

vintage ads

Vintages posters never went out of style. While the artwork and glittery pageantry that set vintage posters a class apart are missing in today's advertising, businesses and homes are compensating for it by investing in vintage advertisements like never before. The art makes them a good investment for collectors, their uniqueness goes well with the tastes of the discerning homeowner, and the advertising jargon sits well with chocolate manufacturers. No wonder the vintage posters of chocolate/candy are so much in demand today.

Helping you along on your quest to find the best vintage poster featuring chocolates and candies are online stores and galleries. Here, you can search according to keywords or select tags. Once you have selected a poster, you have to pick options such as type of frames and shipping.

Whether you are a collector or advertiser, you need to keep in mind that vintage posters in good condition are hard to find and they are expensive. The rarer the poster prints or print editions, the more difficult your mission becomes. Homeowners can get away with classy posters with edges a little torn or corners that roll up a bit - an innovative frame can take care of that. Besides, posters in poor condition are cheaper.

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