My look at some of the advertisements and products of yesteryear. Some weird and whacky, some surprisingly still around today. Here are their stories.
1936 - Heinz
Paying homage to the League of Nations might not have been the smartest marketing move, but Heinz actually supported the British war effort when war broke out, long before America officially joined the war.
The website notes that:
"Since 1926, Heinz Spaghetti has been enjoyed, more often than not on toast, by many different generations of Britons. It is made from Durum wheat pasta and juicy, tomato sauce."
The H. J. Heinz Company, or Heinz, is an American food processing company with world headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Henry John Heinz in 1869. A British subsidiary was established to manage Heinz imports from America in 1886.
Between 1919 and 1927, Heinz UK sales quadrupled. A 22 acre factory site was opened in Harlesden, London in 1925. It increased the total number of employees at Heinz UK from 500 to 1,000. The larger factory allowed Heinz to mass produce, and pass on the economies of scale to the consumer. By 1935 the site covered 40 acres and was one of the largest and up-to-date factories in England.
In 1939, Howard Heinz, the company president, donated £20,000 (£1.2 million) to buy aircraft for the British war effort. He also invited his staff to send their children to America for the duration of the war at the company’s expense.
1937 - Ironized Yeast
As Tamara Abraham noted, the prediliction for "skinny" women did not exist back in the 1930s:
"These ads, published in magazines and newspapers from the Thirties to the Sixties show how weight gain was aspired to then as earnestly as we today aspire to weight loss. Demonstrating an attitude that could not be more far removed from the current vogue for size zero, the ads promote supplements promising speedy weight gain for a sexier body."
"One, promising 'an easy way to add 5-15lb' even features a man, gazing at a reclining woman. The text alongside reads: 'A skinny woman hasn't a chance. I wish I could gain flesh.'"
Ironized yeast was targeted at skinny women who wanted to put on weight. It was claimed that the Ironized Yeast tablet would help women put on 10 to 25 pounds in only a few weeks. A picture of a smiling curvy woman is juxtaposed here against a cartoon slimmer woman, presenting the former as the ideal.
Ironized yeast was actually known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer's yeast, and was frequently used as a B-vitamin supplement for people following a strict vegan diet. It provides a spectrum of nutritional compounds and has a reputation for facilitating weight gain. But "brewer's yeast" would hardly sell as a weight supplement so it was rebranded!
1938 - Parker Pen
It is small wonder that it has ended as a gift "throwaway" item by Michael Parkinson for a "too good to be true" life insurance, as if it still somehow has that luxury edge, when only the very old still set store by ink fountain pens. As a commentator said: "It's such a sad descent, it really and truly is."
But my favourite comment is this:
"Parker pens are so commonplace that they now have less value financially, morally and existentially than anything else in the world. A Parker pen is quite significantly inferior to a cheap supermarket biro that runs out of ink after writing five words and even writing with a finger on a dusty surface is a more pleasant experience than a Parker pen. Nothing on earth is more insipidly anomic than a Parker pen. The only good reason I can think of for offering them to life insurance clients is that they prepare an individual for the eternal monotony of death"
References
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/9266217/Martin-Lewis-the-over-50s-plans-with-a-hitch.html
Between 1919 and 1927, Heinz UK sales quadrupled. A 22 acre factory site was opened in Harlesden, London in 1925. It increased the total number of employees at Heinz UK from 500 to 1,000. The larger factory allowed Heinz to mass produce, and pass on the economies of scale to the consumer. By 1935 the site covered 40 acres and was one of the largest and up-to-date factories in England.
In 1939, Howard Heinz, the company president, donated £20,000 (£1.2 million) to buy aircraft for the British war effort. He also invited his staff to send their children to America for the duration of the war at the company’s expense.
1937 - Ironized Yeast
As Tamara Abraham noted, the prediliction for "skinny" women did not exist back in the 1930s:
"These ads, published in magazines and newspapers from the Thirties to the Sixties show how weight gain was aspired to then as earnestly as we today aspire to weight loss. Demonstrating an attitude that could not be more far removed from the current vogue for size zero, the ads promote supplements promising speedy weight gain for a sexier body."
"One, promising 'an easy way to add 5-15lb' even features a man, gazing at a reclining woman. The text alongside reads: 'A skinny woman hasn't a chance. I wish I could gain flesh.'"
Ironized yeast was targeted at skinny women who wanted to put on weight. It was claimed that the Ironized Yeast tablet would help women put on 10 to 25 pounds in only a few weeks. A picture of a smiling curvy woman is juxtaposed here against a cartoon slimmer woman, presenting the former as the ideal.
Ironized yeast was actually known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer's yeast, and was frequently used as a B-vitamin supplement for people following a strict vegan diet. It provides a spectrum of nutritional compounds and has a reputation for facilitating weight gain. But "brewer's yeast" would hardly sell as a weight supplement so it was rebranded!
1938 - Parker Pen
The Parker Pen Company is a manufacturer of luxury pens,
founded in 1888 by George Safford Parker in Janesville, Wisconsin, United
States.
From the 1920s to the
1960s, before the development of the ballpoint pen, Parker was either number
one or number two in worldwide writing instrument sales. In 1931 Parker created
Quink (quick drying ink), which eliminated the need for blotting. In 1941 the
company developed the most widely used model of fountain pen in history (over
$400 million worth of sales in its 30-year history), the Parker 51.
With commercial competition increasing upon the Parker
jotter's classic metal ink refill cartridge design from low cost generic copies
produced in China, as Parker's unique design patent for the cartridge expired,
Parker's sales began to be drastically adversely affected.
In 2011 the Parker factory at Newhaven, East Sussex,
England, was closed, and its production transferred to Nantes, France
The following month, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. announced that
the factory in Janesville, Wisconsin, was also to close the remaining operation
there producing Parker Pens (which eliminated a further 153 manufacturing jobs)
Parker also altered its traditional product warranty on its
high end pens, changing the former lifetime guarantee to a two-year warranty
limitation.
It is small wonder that it has ended as a gift "throwaway" item by Michael Parkinson for a "too good to be true" life insurance, as if it still somehow has that luxury edge, when only the very old still set store by ink fountain pens. As a commentator said: "It's such a sad descent, it really and truly is."
But my favourite comment is this:
"Parker pens are so commonplace that they now have less value financially, morally and existentially than anything else in the world. A Parker pen is quite significantly inferior to a cheap supermarket biro that runs out of ink after writing five words and even writing with a finger on a dusty surface is a more pleasant experience than a Parker pen. Nothing on earth is more insipidly anomic than a Parker pen. The only good reason I can think of for offering them to life insurance clients is that they prepare an individual for the eternal monotony of death"
References
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/9266217/Martin-Lewis-the-over-50s-plans-with-a-hitch.html
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