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Vintage Ads Site

by Marvin Johnston
6 replies
This site has a lot of vintage ads in a variety of subject areas with some going back several centuries:

Vintage Ad Browser

It is fun to read the copy for some of the ads written several centuries ago.

Its sister site is just as interesting:

Cover Browser

Kind of wish I hadn't seen these as browsing through them can be major time eaters. Note I didn't say "time wasters" .

Marvin
#ads #site #vintage
  • Profile picture of the author wipeoutmedia
    Hi Marvin,

    Thanks for sharing that.
    I spent some 'quality' time perusing through a lot of them.
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  • Profile picture of the author MontelloMarketing
    Most of these I've never seen... And I've seen hundreds! Good find.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rezbi
    Like Vin, I've seen a lot. I even have a lot. But I haven't seen many of these.

    Excellent find.
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  • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
    Several years ago the Summit County Ohio library was being redone and for about 2 years the library was in an old grocery store. The "basement" archives were available to the public. These are books and magazines that go back to the early 1800's.

    I spent several months, daily going through the magazines looking for Direct Response Ads. I've written about this before. I know many of you skim my posts, so I wont' bore you with the details, but here are a few of my findings.

    The longest running direct response ads are for

    1. Surplus Binoculars
    2. Woodworking Plans
    3. Dress and quilt patterns
    4. Woodworking TOOLS
    5. Home or improvement plans

    Now, it would have been Patent Medicines, which have been selling since the American Revolution...but the creation of the FDA and FTC put them out of biz for a brief period, sort of like prohibition put distillers out of business...HA..

    Today's Miracle Cures, the secrets of curing cancer, for example, THEY don't want you to know about....sort of thing can trace it's roots back to these cure all snake oil salesman, which is how it got it's name.

    Want to know the most popular direct response product of the late 1800s and was one that was one of the most expensive?

    Bicycles. Sold for nearly 100 bux and were shipped by train.

    Today, Walmart sells bikes for roughly the same price as they were sold back in the day.

    The forerunner to the Quaker Oats company, based here in Akron, OH is considered to be one of the pioneers in Direct Response Marketing. A fortune was made supplying oats to the Union Army under one of the most lucrative gov't contracts, one which has become sort of a template for dealing with and getting rich off of Uncle Sam.

    Guns and all things about them have been a top 10 best seller for well over 150 years.

    Hope I didn't bore you this time.

    gjabiz

    PS Actually, bikes were pretty cheap about 60 to 75, but packing them into crates and paying for the shipping and handling, which is where that term came from was where the added cost came from.



    Originally Posted by Marvin Johnston View Post

    This site has a lot of vintage ads in a variety of subject areas with some going back several centuries:

    Vintage Ad Browser

    It is fun to read the copy for some of the ads written several centuries ago.

    Its sister site is just as interesting:

    Cover Browser

    Kind of wish I hadn't seen these as browsing through them can be major time eaters. Note I didn't say "time wasters" .

    Marvin
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    • Profile picture of the author KingOfContentMarketing
      Originally Posted by gjabiz View Post

      Want to know the most popular direct response product of the late 1800s and was one that was one of the most expensive?

      Bicycles. Sold for nearly 100 bux and were shipped by train.

      Today, Walmart sells bikes for roughly the same price as they were sold back in the day.
      Wow, you weren't kidding. Check out these ads for $100 bikes:

      Search Vintage Ad Browser

      Seems like a lot of cash for those days.
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      Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of perceptions.
      - Jack Trout
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      • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
        The Bike Craze lasted about 10 years. Then, the motorized carriage was on the scene.

        When I say Bike Craze, this was a new device mass produced and sent by rail.
        We all know the Wright Bros were bike guys.

        Mail Order and Remote Direct Response boomed after Sears and Montgomery Wards started to send out their catalogs and many followed.

        HOMES were sold, for about 2500 ready to be assembled, included all the nuts, bolts, windows, etc. NO wiring though, electricity was new.

        The AMAZING thing for me was/is, the appeals used in 1860 are pert near the same as they are today. Times change, sez the old marketer, but people don't.

        Sell em what they want.

        There was time, 1885 to about 1939, every little berg in America had a train depot, sort of like Petticoat Junction Joe (I know you remember that one).

        And they worked a lot like UPS does, with central hubs, and then local tracks where they would unload the cars and reload them with local goods. Here in Akron, we sold a lot of cereal, toys, marbles before we became the Rubber Capital of the World with tires.

        It boggles my mind to think people were spending that much money on bikes over 100 years ago. Who'd of thunk? Not me.

        gjabiz


        Originally Posted by Joe Ditzel View Post

        Wow, you weren't kidding. Check out these ads for $100 bikes:

        Search Vintage Ad Browser

        Seems like a lot of cash for those days.
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