Retro Ad #4 - Buy War Bonds - Get a House and Gold Digger

This poster is a bit of an oddity from the days of World War  II, when the easiest way to provide support to the war effort, was buying war bonds.  For those who are unacquainted with the world of war bond, they were documents issued by the government  promising inflated financial returns in the years beyond a country's imminent victory in war, in exchange for money.  This money was used to finance a country's war effort, and the influx of cash was also used as a means to control inflation by taking money out of circulation.  Canada, the United States, and Germany all had war bond programs during the first and second world wars.

While most North American war bond posters usually portrayed various glorious battlefield scenes or scenes from the war effort back at home, this one is just bizarre.  It features characters from Li'l Abner comic strips, who were very popular in the day.  Li'l Abner featured a cast of hillbilly characters, who speak in a barely recognizable form of english and, for the purposes of the world at the time, are on the war bond bandwagon.  However, according to this advertisement, war bonds are more a means to get a hot babe and a house and less about helping the war effort.

The most perplexing thing about this poster is not the message, but the goings on in the background of the illustration.  Why is that old woman with the corncob pipe holding that old man upside down and cutting his toenails?  What does that have to do with war bonds?  I get Daisy Mae in a classic pin-up pose, but was the toenail thing a recurring thing in the comic strip?  I'm also amused by the old woman's high heeled boots.  If not for the boots I would have though she was a man.

Eight Day Halloween Advent Calendar - Five More Days...

Today's Halloween flavoured surprise is a vintage advertisement from 1947.  It stars Dorothy Lamour, who is probably most famous for starring opposite Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in their "Road" movies, and playing a saronged beauty in a variety of different jungle themed movies during the 1930s.

Here she'd ditched her sarong and decided to use a jack-o-lantern as an ashtray.  Perhaps a seasonally appropriate cigarette case?  It was very common for popular actors and actresses of the day to shill for cigarettes. Chesterfield often relied on celebrity endorsements.  Given that this is before people knew that cigarettes caused lung cancer, you can't really look down on Lamour too much.  I'm more disappointed that they didn't make her wear a more Halloween-y costume.

I also wonder what Chesterfield means by cooler smoking. Do they make you look cooler?  Do they burn at a lower temperature?

Retro Ad #2: Blue Jay Corn Plasters (circa. 1945)

I don't know where to begin with this one.  A lady blissfully prancing in her pretty pink bra and matching bloomers; completely barefoot.  I know when I see this the first thing I think about is corn removal.  Apparently the talking heads at her feet all have corns on the brain as well.  Or at least corn relief.

Seriously, I'm not sure if the advertisers were trying to go for the sex appeal angle, but let's face it there's nothing sexy about overgrown foot calluses.  Not to mention the fact that the majority of people who suffer from corns are women who wear ill-fitting high-heeled shoes, I don't see how a shoeless nubile women in her underwear is would entice a woman to buy their treatment.  But then what do I know.