Forgotten Advertising Characters of the Era

[2jakes]

But to be fair, of that ten percent, how many used the rubbers? I have no idea, but wonder if they were effective if used correctly? The ten percent infection rate doesn't tell me much about their effectiveness unless we know if they were used.

If applied by a professional they are very
effective & takes less than a second to apply.
DIY can be awkward.
Not being facetious.
But unless you wanted to commit sucide,
you never went in without one.

 

[Fading Fast]

If applied by a professional ....

Err, umm, uh, in this case, I can think of a few different type of people that could be called "professionals."

 

[2jakes]

Err, umm, uh, in this case, I can think of a few different type of people that could be called "professionals."

I’ll simply say that I’m from Mars and I
love the ones from Venus.

 

[MisterCairo]

Know your pen...
View attachment 88935

Is THAT what the kids called it???

 

[2jakes]

Is THAT what the kids called it???

Depends.
In the military, I heard arguments as to what it was called.
The North and South had their different opinions as to what was the right “terminology”.
...I’m getting off topic..I need to call Johnny!

 

[2jakes]

"Calling Johnny Roventini"...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Johnny remained on the Philip Morris payroll until the day he died. He had briefly dabbled with smoking as a young man, but gave it up early on. He had the same glandular condition that kept Walter Tetley (radio's greatest child impersonator) and Dick "Speedy Alka Seltzer" Beals from growing to full height and voice. Even as an elderly man he could still hit a perfect B-Flat.

 

[2jakes]

Johnny remained on the Philip Morris payroll until the day he died. He had briefly dabbled with smoking as a young man, but gave it up early on. He had the same glandular condition that kept Walter Tetley (radio's greatest child impersonator) and Dick "Speedy Alka Seltzer" Beals from growing to full height and voice. Even as an elderly man he could still hit a perfect B-Flat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Reddy Kilowatt had a longer run than most of his colleagues in the mascot business -- he first showed up in the twenties and was still out there plugging in the eighties as a trademark licensed by hundreds of light and power companies across the US, and in comic books and animated classroom films promoting electrical safety and convincing generations of kids that privately-owned utilities were more American than public ones.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Who can forget Phoebe Snow, the lawn-clad representative of the Lackawana Railroad?

Her immaculate attire emphasized the cleanly attributes of the Lackawana road, which, owning mines near Scrsnton, exclusively used clean-burning anthracite coal to fuel their engines rather than the cheaper bitumonous coal used by most other roads, which smutted travelers
garments with black, greasy soot.

https://goo.gl/images/1T6ZJC

Near my neck of the woods we have a hike/bike trail that has been built pver the old Erie Lackawana rail line.

And leave it to the Boys to get an endorsement from Satan himself.

Pluto Water was a laxative mineral water guaranteed to raise hell with your sluggish colon. Causing fraternity pledges to drink entire bottles of it and then go on a long hike was a favorite initiation stunt on the campuses of the Era.

In southern Indiana is a town called French Lick. A hotel called West Baden was built ther that once had the largest freestanding dome in the world. One thing that brought people there was the Pluto water.

 

[52Styleline]

Anyone remember this little green guy?

 

[52Styleline]

“Ay, Yi, Yi, Yi, I am the Frito Bandito. Give me Fritos corn chips and I’ll be your friend, the Frito Bandito you must not offend.”

 

[Nobert]

I don't know if the Uneeda Biscuit Boy is forgotten, but I certainly wasn't aware of him until a few years ago.

Of course, I have never in my life seen a Uneeda Biscuit, and I take it for granted that the advertiser's presumptions about my neccessities are mere copywriter's zeal. Likewise, I have never seen a box of Rinso soap, which alone would explain my lack of familiarity with "Lily White" and "Aunty Sneeze."

I expect some characters fell by the wayside simply because the products they stumped for didn't survive into the modern age. Although never a big soda drinker, I think I would have rememered the Esquimaux lad who sold Clicquot Club ginger ale:



I have, however, been eating yellow mustard for most of my life, and I don't recall "Hot Dan the Mustard Man."

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I have no pictures, but from a later era:
Manners the butler, a miniature guy (maybe 18 inches tall), Dressed in black coat, striped pants, bowler hat and umbrella (I left out the Oxford comma because he speaks with an American accent.), he was the spokesman for Kleenex table napkins in TV commercials from my early years.

And don't forget Ready Kilowatt!

 

[2jakes]

Reddy Kilowatt had a longer run than most of his colleagues in the mascot business -- he first showed up in the twenties and was still out there plugging in the eighties as a trademark licensed by hundreds of light and power companies across the US, and in comic books and animated classroom films promoting electrical safety and convincing generations of kids that privately-owned utilities were more American than public ones.

I had a pin like this attached to my baseball cap!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hot Dan was a pretty big deal in the late '30s. We had a souvenir Hot Dan mustard spoon made of Genuine Beetleware that my grandmother had sent away for in her younger days, and it was still in regular use when I was a kid.

Uneeda Biscuits are a sore spot for me. They were and remain my all-time favorite soda cracker, and I am still sputtering with blind rage that those idiots at Kraft discontinued them about ten years ago. Fools. Dolts. Morons. Buffoons. Corporate Capitalist Swine.

The Uneeda Boy was very very prominent up until the mid-thirties or so, when he faded out of view -- he was still on the Uneeda box, though, right up to the very end. And whenever Warner Bros. made a cartoon where grocery mascots come to life in a store after dark, he was always featured, usually in a cutie-pie duet with the Morton Salt Girl to "By A Waterfall."

 

[Nobert]

And whenever Warner Bros. made a cartoon where grocery mascots come to life in a store after dark, he was always featured, usually in a cutie-pie duet with the Morton Salt Girl to "By A Waterfall."

Yes, I think I read that they got married, until he threw her over for the younger, blonder Coppertone girl, whose naive yet free-wheeling ways made him feel young again, like the sun had come out for the first time in his life.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best of the "grocery mascots come to life" cartoons, from 1934. Many of the characters mentioned in this thread do a turn.

Oh, and you'll never eat a popcorn ball again.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Playing a vital role in the above cartoon is this fellow, the Flit Soldier, who bravely doused your house with
pyrethin-laced kerosene which no fly, wasp, or mosquito could survive. If he actually hit him with it, that is.

A popular radio orchestra of the late twenties called itself the Flit Soldiers, leading to this impressive piece of militaristic memorabilia.

Flit dumped this campaign in the early thirties, when tightly-routined marching men fell into understandably bad odor, and replaced it with a long series of ads drawn by Dr. Seuss in which some unfortunate soul was confronted by a Seussian monstrosity and bellowed "Quick Henry! The Flit!" These ads ran for nearly twenty years, but the Soldier often managed to muscle his way back into the scene.

 

[2jakes]

Kit Cat Klock

Tail fell off & the clock no longer keeps the right time, but I’m keep it!