The year is 1947, or thereabouts. What are they selling? Answer later tonight.
Pass it along, if you wish
31 Responses to Out of Context Ad Challenge
Host with the Most
Laxatives. Because you don’t want to let bowel discomfort disrupt an important interview.
Diaper service?
“You’ve got them in the palm of your hand. Mr. Wilson-esque bosses are lining up at YOUR door! But they can’t come in until you’ve got…a doorknob. Doorknobs. Opening new doors every day.”
A meeting with the Irritable Bear?
The Dale Carnegie course?
Lars beat me to it. I bet it’s Dale Carnegie.
A job search website. The content reads like this:
“Hire your new boss! (In 60 years or so you’ll plug your plastic and glass commun-o-matic up to the great conversation going on over the Ma Bell lines. You’ll be able to view ads for new positions, finding the one of your choice at a terrific rate! Imagine going through four ads an hour from the luxury of your own home while the wife brings your nightcap. Improve yourself and your family, find the right boss for you by typing up Easy Minneapolis Jobs 925!”
a personal manager service.
“Do you need to pre-screen qualified employers? Can’t waste your time? Don’t want your kids hurt on the way to school? Then you should contact Vinny Mosconi and the boys. Specializing in insurance, personal relationship management, and import/export services. Contact Bruno or Skull at East Side Social Club, Hoboken, NJ.”
Post Graduate Program from the Fuller Brush Company’s DoorToDoor University.
Dianetics v 1.0, when they saw Dale Carnegie as their principal competition.
newspaper advertising?
It’s gotta be a sales training book…advertising how amazing you’ll be and how everyone will be knocking down your door to hire you. I saw a film strip from the early ’50s advertising one once, and they claimed it had been helping “the nation’s top salesmen” (or something like that) land the choicest jobs for two decades. The specific examples they used in the film were car sales (where the guy actually drove a car through town knocking on every door asking people if they’d like to take a test drive) and door-to-door vacuum sales asked people who wouldn’t let him in the door if they had any neighbors with more horse sense (because who WOULDN’T want to pay for a vacuum for a decade?) he could talk to.
They all took laxatives and are waiting in line to use the trained employees restroom!!
Why of course- it’s Chevrolet- trained salesmen that know how to handle their prospects, due to great Jam Handy training films: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1544213286025960139#
Anti-laxatives? Because all those men look like they are about to poop their pants.
Either that or watches. You can apply for a job between 10 am & 11 am, and the clock on the wall looks like it is 10:55 am.
Along the lines of previous guesses like “sales training book”, “carnegie course”, etc., it could be advertising the local business college. Before it was popular to have an acronym for a company name, they would have some respectable-sounding hyphenated name like “Atkinson – McDowell Training Institute”, and be located on the fifth floor of the third bank in town.
Either that, or it’s a toothpaste ad…
The guy second from the right reminds me of Mr. Drysdale.
Something tells me this one isn’t for laxatives, although they all look like they might need one!
Looks like an ad for an employment agency to me. “We get the employers lined up to interview you!”
IIUHC, jobs were in short supply in 1947 after the war, so this kind of an ad would appeal to job hunters.
Brownie: Why of course- it’s Chevrolet- trained salesmen that know how to handle their prospects, due to great Jam Handy training films.
I have actually been through Chevrolet sales training, lo these many years ago. It was surprisingly effective. If only the cars were as good.
What they are actually selling here is new line of Stetson hats, specially designed not to show sweat stains on the brim.
Correspondence course for sales training.
A cigarette, because they make you relaxed, confident and successful!
Those laxatives jokes just never get old.
Hal: Those laxatives jokes just never get old.
No, you can just keep going and going and going.
you know, those four guys all look like they’ve been sold a rabid bill of goods.
Vinny, Bruno, and Skull are sounding better all the time.
So, what exactly is this “laxative” thing that makes you titter so?
Hey, that’s LBJ on the left!!! 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2—1
Atomic warheads?
I believe it’s for the Classifieds section of the newspaper, and how the paper can sell for you.
Monster.com, back when it was Monster.teletype.
A plea to hire returning servicemen. (Something still current.)
“We’re gonna have leadership the way my old man told me! You, put a handkerchief on your head! You, swat at imaginary elves! You, rock on the porch all night!”
MST3K 4-EVER!