How often do you wish you could travel back in time to the 1900s, Pandas? Perhaps time travel is not something we can offer, but we can share a time capsule that reflects the 20th-century lifestyle quite well. Bored Panda came across a pretty fascinating page that shares advertisements, posters, and products from that era.
While scrolling through the content from the “Archaic Ads” page, you’ll get a whiff of what it was like to live in that era: what products people had advertised to them, how the adverts were worded, and what (sometimes insane) visuals accompanied them. So, get into the shoes of a 20th-century consumer, Pandas, and see what the world had to offer!
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#1 This 1957 Power Mower Of The Future Was Equipped With A Plastic Dome, Air Foam Cushion Seat, Electric Generator, Running Lights, Radio, And Air Conditioning
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#2 “…used By Many To Reduce The Waist Line.” Now You Can Melt Those Pounds Away As You Golf Or Paint!
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#3 The Niagara Wave & Rocking Bath (1890s) Was An Early Form Of Hydrotherapy. The Manufacturer Promised An Accurate Simulation Of The “Seaside” & Good Health Through Improved Circulation
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#4 If Your Newborn Baby Arrives Wrapped In Cellophane, He May Need More Than A Smack On The Butt
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#5 American Inventor Stanley Hiller, Jr Designed This All-Metal Squirt Gun In The Late 1940s
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#6 Claiming To Cure A ‘Torpid Liver’ And Beautify The Complexion, Crane’s Little Bon-Bon Pills Were Most Likely A Laxative Or Mild Diuretic
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#7 “It’s Leap Year Girls! Catch Your Man With Taste-Tempting Donuts.” If You Really Think Marriage Is A Trap, Why Bother With A Ball And Chain? Just Put The Donuts In A Bear Trap
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#8 If All You Have Is This Radiation Survival Kit, You’ll Be Envying Those Who Were Vaporized At Ground Zero
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#9 “Made From Heavy Awing Cloth In Bright,gaudy, Horrible Stripes.” What The Well-Dressed Sleazeball Wears To Lunch
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#10 These Girls Are Lovely And Exotic, And Yet They Are Also Lonely And Eager To Meet Me. Sounds Legit!
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#11 Actually, Body Odor Is Caused By Bacteria Breaking Down Sweat
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#12 In The 1950s, Students Who Were Constantly Fidgeting Were Suffering From “Harsh Toilet Paper.” Now We Attribute The Fidgeting To Adhd And Dose Kids With Adderall
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#13 “Easy On The Sugar — You’re Reducing!” Why Don’t You Shut The Hell Up Instead! And Why Is She Reducing? Was That His Idea?
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#14 The Committee For A Better America Was Formed In The 1920s For, “The Suppression Of Radicalism, Class Legislation And All Else Inimical To The Welfare Of The Nation.”
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#15 The “Modern World” Of 1954 Apparently Had A Lot Of Women Pushing Lawn Mowers
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#16 Is She Really “Pleased” Or Is She Plotting To Get Even While You Sleep?
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#17 “I’ve Robbed The Rainbow To Make You Gay — Jester Wools For Gayer Garments” This Guy Didn’t Need To Rob Anything To Bring The Gay
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#18 Who Was Sitting Around One Day And Thought What People Were Missing In Their Lives Was A Rug That Would “Stroke As You Stroke?”
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#19 Whaaat? We’re Not Gay! We’re Just Two Adult Men Goofing Around In Our Boxers
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#20 What Does Ben-Hur Have To Do With Flour, You Ask? Nothing, Really
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#21 For The “Newest Nowest Style!”
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#22 What Does It Mean To “Throw Like A Girl” In This Ww2-Era Poster? It’s Meant As A Put-Down, But It Reveals How Stereotypes Become Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
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#23 The Electric Banana Stereo Phono Was Inspired By An Andy Warhol Painting Of A Banana For A 1967 Album By Velvet Underground
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#24 “Real Hair! Actually Trimmed From Davy, Peter, Micky & Mike” But It Doesn’t Say From Their Heads
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#25 In 1981, Electronic Mail Was Still An Exciting Innovation, But The First Email Spam Had Already Been Sent Three Years Earlier
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#26 TV Was Already Doing An Excellent Job Of Hypnotizing Viewers By The Time This Ad Appeared
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#27 This Poster Was Produced At Oak Ridge National Laboratory In 1947 To Remind Personnel Of Radiation Safety Practices
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#28 In The Early Half Of The 20th Century, Asbestos Was Widely Used As Christmas Decor Because Of Its White, Fluffy Appearance
But that was before it was recognized as a major risk factor for an aggressive form of cancer known as mesothelioma. There is a scene in the 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz” where asbestos snow falls on Dorothy and her friends, awakening them from a spell cast by the Wicked Witch of the West.
Image source: archaicads
#29 The Faultless Rubber Company Promoted Its Faultless Sanitary Sealed Package For Delivering “Clean Balloons, Untouched From The Factory To Your Child.”
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#30 “It’s A Salad! It’s A Dessert” It’s A Dessert Topping…and A Floor Wax! (Saturday Night Live, 1976 — ‘New Shimmer’, The Floor Wax That’s Also A Dessert Topping)
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#31 “All The Fun You Can Have With Him”… But What Fun Can You Have With A Dead Alligator? Actually, I Don’t Want To Know
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#32 The Black Dragon Fighting Society Was Created By Hairdresser, Criminal, Pornographer, And Egomaniac John “Count Dante” Keehan To Separate Paper Route Money From Comic Book Reading Young Boys
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#33 Jell-O Brand Powder First Hit The Market In 1897
Over the years their advertising featured many recipes. In this ad from 1959, readers are told that the gelatin protein that is produced when animal bones, connective tissues and other similar meat by-products are boiled makes a delicious soft drink.
Image source: archaicads
#34 “Wow Jug, Now Everyone And Their Brother Will Want Our Delicious Wieners In Their Mouth!” Jughead Doesn’t Care, But Veronica Looks Ready To Dig In!
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#35 And Not Racist At All. Oh No!
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#36 “Including Sanitary Equipment” — A Bucket
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#37 In 1970, Ohio Art Invented A Toy Phonograph And Promoted It As The “World’s Smallest Record Player.” It Also Had The World’s Worst Sound
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#38 “Roger Put Me Into A Street Van. And I’m Not Coming Out.” Why Not? Are You Being Held Hostage?
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#39 Genuine Ocd Toy Gas Masks — For Genuine Ocd Kids! Is It Really A “Toy” Or Is It “Genuine War Surplus?
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#40 Before There Were Cans, All Soda And Beer Came In Bottles That Required A Deposit So That The Empties Could Be Returned, Cleaned And Reused
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#41 The Johnny Astro Space Vehicle — “The Most Exciting Toy Ever” — Was Actually A Balloon That Used A Fan For “Lift-Off” And Controlled Flight
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#42 “Never Before A Woman Like This” In The 1950s, Pepsi Claimed Its Soft Drink Would Make Women Slimmer, Healthier And More Attractive
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#43 The “Multiple Electric Vibrator” Uses 480 Little Nubs To Rub Your Scalp, Stimulating Blood Flow And Supposedly Ridding You Of Dandruff And Loose Hair
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#44 Cadillac Was Founded In 1902 By Henry Leland, Who Named The Company After Antoine De La Mothe Cadillac, The Founder Of Detroit
In 1908, when this ad was posted, Cadillac had brought the idea of interchangeable parts to the automotive industry and laid the ground work for the modern mass production of automobiles.
Image source: archaicads
#45 In The 1890s, Sharpening Pencils (Or Other Writing Implements) Involved Sandpaper, Knives, And Files And This Kind Of Activity Was Not Appropriate For Women
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#46 “Many Times The Child Who Has Uncontrollable Flatulence Needs A Diet Correction — Not A Spanking! Ah, The Good Old Days. Apparently, In The 1940s It Was Normal To Spank A Kid For Farting
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#47 “I Wish I’d Never Married!”
Morton’s trademark catchphrase, “When it rains, it pours” was created to illustrate the point that Morton Salt was free flowing even in rainy weather after the company began adding magnesium carbonate as an absorbing agent to its table salt in 1911 to ensure that it poured freely.
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#48 The Speedy Weeny Debuted In 1947. It Cooked Hot Dogs In Seconds, Using Microwave Technology Developed For Radar In World War II
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#49 The Word “Colored” Was First Used To Describe Black People In The Us In 1807, And Didn’t End Until The Mid 1960s
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#50 The Perfect Christmas Gift!
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#51 Weird-Vintage-Posters-Products
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#52 Shell Brags About Increasing Crop Yields
Shell brags about increasing crop yields with “nitrogation” which Shell defines as taking “hydrogen from petroleum gas” and combining it with “nitrogen from the air” to make a “potent food for hungry roots.” In fact, the process fertilizes the soil by the addition of anhydrous ammonia from pressure tanks into the irrigation water.
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#53 The Mosely Folding Bath Company Advertised This Folding Bath In The 1895 Montgomery Ward Catalog
This tub, disguised as a mirrored wardrobe, folded down and out of its wood casing into the room, revealing the water heater above. Since most folks still didn’t have indoor plumbing, bathing required filling tubs with water, bucket by bucket
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#54 The Evans Vacuum Cap (“A Scientific Method Of Growing Hair”) Was Advertised Widely Just Before The Food & Drug Act Of 1906, But Not So Much Afterwards
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#55 Yes Friends, You Too Can Be An “Electronic Man” Made Out Of Cardboard
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#56 Advertisement In The Sears Roebuck Catalog For Laudanum. Opium’s Toxicity For Infants Was Common Knowledge Since Antiquity, And Yet In The Late 19th Century It Was Still In Widespread Use
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#57 All Of Them? Watch Yourselves, Ladies! American Soldiers Are Std-Riddled Whores!
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#58 Why Not Reduce Your Weight And Be Comfortable?” The Advertising For Weight Loss Products Has Never Been Subtle
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#59 The First Foils For Cooking Were Made Out Of Tin In The Late 19th Century. Aluminum Foil Was First Manufactured In Switzerland In 1910
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#60 The Big Selling Point For Crosley Shelvador? Shelves In The Door. Get It? “Shel-Va-Dor”
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#61 Chug-A-Lug Grandpa! You Too, Little Missy
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#62 In 1933, The American Can Company Produced The First Workable Beer Can
The first cans were made out of steel with a tin lining, so that the beer wouldn’t take on a metallic taste. The cans were heavy and could only be opened with a “church key.”
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#63 It’s Hard To Believe Air Travel Was Ever Like This, Because Flying Today Is A Lot Like Riding A Bus
In 1966, American Airlines ordered several Boeing 747 Astroliners; the biggest commercial airplanes at the time. But by the time American received the new aircraft in 1970, the economy was in a recession and there was too much capacity in the industry to justify 303-seat jumbos. So American pulled 50 seats off each 747 and used the free space to create a passenger lounge. They even installed a Wurlitzer piano in each lounge. Unfortunately, ticket sales didn’t justify the added expense and the piano-lounge-in-the-sky era ended quickly.
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#64 The Daddy Saddle. Now You Can Humiliate Your Dad — Texas Style! Yee Haw!
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#65 Mom Is Wired On Benzedrine!
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#66 “For Men Only! . . . Brand New Man-Talking, Power-Packed Patterns That Tell Her It’s A Man’s World . . . And Make Her So Happy It Is.”
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#67 In The 1940s, Englander Mattress Boosted Sales By Convincing Women That Their Husband Would Be Much Nicer To Them If They Could Only Get A Good Night’s Sleep
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#68 Even The Squirrel Thinks Its Fun! But This Guy’s Wife Immediately Threw It In The Trash
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#69 Sears Travelknit Fourpiece. When You Can Only Afford One Suit, Make Sure It’s An Ugly Green Doubleknit
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#70 “Balls Is The New Candy Sensation That Lets You Conquer The World. Just Pop A Few Balls In Your Mouth And You’ll Be Ready For Everything.”
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#71 “What Man Wouldn’t Enjoy Spending A Night With Raquel Welch?” Well, Forget That, But You Can Buy This “Rugged Vinyl” Pillow To Serve As Your “Headrest.”
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#72 This Guy Seems A Little Too Happy About It
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#73 “Get A Real Tan — Not A Fake Orange Tan”…like The Orangutan-Colored Donald Trump!
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#74 Austin Powers: “So, Shall We Shag Now, Or Shall We Shag Later?”
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#75 Sylvania Convertible TV — It’s A Console And A Back Injury!
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