All-American Ads of the 40s

by Jim Heimann

THE BEST ADS FROM THE DECADE THAT FIRST SAW AMERICA EMERGE AS A SUPERPOWER. IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THE COMPANY WHO MADE YOUR ULTRA-COMPACT MOBILE PHONE WAS ONCE ADVERTISING PORTABLE RADIOS WITH MORE RADIO PLEASURE FOR LESS MONEY, OR THAT ONCE UPON A TIME, ELECTROLUX DIDN'T HAVE ANY QUALMS ABOUT USING MANDY, THE PORTLY BLACK MAID, TO PROMOTE THEIR NEW SILENT ""LOR-DY, IT SURE IS QUIET!"" AMONG THESE SURPRISING AND CONTROVERSIAL 40s ADS, YOU'LL ALSO FIND SOME FAMILIAR PRODUCTS THAT, AMAZINGLY, HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL OVER THE YEARS, SUCH AS JUICY DOLE PINEAPPLES AND WHOLESOME CAMPBELL'S SOUP. YUMM.

Genres: Art, Design, History, Coffee Table Books, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

Reviews

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get ready to do some heavy lifting, this is no skimpy, slip of a book. This is one of the books that makes my family quip, "You sure do like big books," (why, yes I do, thank you). This is a book in which you can feast your eyes on ads, ads, and more ads. And yes, the irony was not lost on me that I avoid magazines, or anything printed, with too many ads, and complain about their infiltration of articles and real content, and yet, happily look through seven hundred something pages of ads from the 1940s and even read the fine text. (Maybe some day people will find our present day ads charming and insightful to the past, as well). I appreciate the very minimal commentary and interruptions from the author, because frankly, there's few things that annoy me more than having any kind of visual art come with some mammoth, two hundred page written psychoanalysis of it.

If you're interested vintage advertising of this era, this is for you, and if you know someone who lived through this decade they make love the walk down memory lane (I bought a copy for my grandparents, for instance). It's a pity the other books in this series are already out of print and expensive to get, I'd snap this one up while you can.

[Greg L Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun, like all the books in the series. I'm finally getting around to building a collection of these.

[MKF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I'm curious if family who lived during the 40's saw these same ads, used any of these products, or saw some of things like the cars or planes.

[Themistocles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, like the whole series...

[Themistocles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, like the whole series...

[Scott Wiener · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are strange time capsules that are fun to look through.