Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to my blog.

Perhaps more than any other form of media, a product advertisement is a reflection of the era it was created in. Advertising is not necessarily intended to be an enduring art form (although some ads have gone on to achieve iconic status); rather, it is intended to capitalize on the perceived trends and desires of the consumer public at any given time in order to sell a product. Because of this transitory nature, advertisements from the past capture the spirit of their particular time period in a very unique way.

That all sounds very academic, doesn't it? The fact is, advertisements from the past are just plain cool. Over the years, so many products have been introduced by manufacturers and then discontinued and  forgotten, existing only in the memories of those people who used them and in the pages of the publications which advertised them. Other products which still remain available today have undergone quite a few changes over the years, and the ads which promoted them have captured these changes.

I've been collecting vintage magazines for many years now, and one of the main reasons I do so is because of the advertising in them. It's fun to look at '70s ads, with bell bottoms, harvest gold, macramé and fondue pots everywhere, or late '80s ads featuring models with enormous hair and oversized sweaters standing in rooms decorated in mauve and Williamsburg blue. It's also fun to remember long-discontinued products like Doo Dads, Dyna-Mints and Freakies cereal through the ads which captured them in their day.

This blog will feature various product advertisements from the 1960s through the 1980s, as well as a few observations or recollections about the products in them. Hopefully it will be a fun journey down memory lane. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!

The Advertising Attic :)