Why is canned asparagus so terrible? Even the drawing looks more like green hot dogs or tampons than it looks like fresh asparagus.

Untitled
by Stanley Hoyt
1906

“Slack Power” (1969/2006) from UNBRANDED
by Hank WIllis Thomas

Sporting Life
written by Cecil Raleigh & Seymour Hicks
Strobridge & Co. Lith.
c1898

A stern tambourining from the Purity Brigade.
in
“The Belle of New York”
poster by S.C. Allen & Company
c1901

“Walter Early, creator of Elsie the Borden cow, sketches her at the exhibit”
New York World’s Fair (1939-1940)

“By 1939, Elsie’s popularity was growing strongly. But, at that point, she was just a two-dimensional drawing used for magazines and newspapers, or a character on the radio. The people wanted more.

At Borden’s 1939 New York World’s Fair exhibit featuring Borden’s machinery and 150 Jersey cows, consumer surveys revealed that 20% of the questions related to Borden’s machinery, 20% to the location of restrooms and an overwhelming 60% asked which cow was Elsie. Borden responded by selecting the most beautiful of the 150 Jersey cows to be the real life Elsie.” - via

“Etti-Cat and the Voting Everyman”
from a display of subway advertising in the NY Transit Museum

Etti-Cat also has a book about manners.

slightperceptualproblem:

Elephants with sign Raymond’s Where U Bot the [Hat] by Boston Public Library on Flickr. Leslie Jones, ca. 1917-34.

© Leslie Jones. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

“Allen & Ginter, Richmond, Virginia. 50 fish from American waters. You will catch one in each package of Virginia Brights, Richmond Straight Cut No. 1 Cigarettes”

[between 1870 and 1900]

Presumably this is advertising the trading cards that come with the cigarettes, but it does sound a lot like they’re advertising the fact that their cigarettes are made of fish.

slightperceptualproblem:

“Sugar Save It.”, ca. 1917 - ca. 1919 by The U.S. National Archives on Flickr.

World War I Posters, compiled 1917 - 1919; U.S. Food Administration, Educational Division, Advertising Section.