I collect original vintage adverts removed from tatty or torn old comics and magazines found at car boots or bought up online.
Looking back, I'm very grateful to have enjoyed a childhood packed with some of the old familiar toys, fads and collectibles, which were so temptingly endorsed by these temporary printed ads.
But other desired treasures, like the iconic colour and chrome Chopper bike remained eternally conspicuous by its absence at each consecutive Christmas; despite the best efforts of Raleigh to peddle one to my rather pedestrianized parents.
A lot of comic book adverts simply advertised, but others offered kids opportunities... opportunities to enter competitions to win all sorts of desirable goodies which were usually beyond pocket money prices.
Breakfast cereal adverts gave us breakfast table collectibles that spoon-fed our cravings for plastic premium space toys and simple card cut-outs and collectibles from the popular telly progs of the day.
These short-lived ephemeral ads offer a gentle reminder of the energetic trends that excited us as kids. They illustrate a bygone style of advertising, all to familiar to an aging generation of once wannabe spacemen.
Much like the products they proudly promoted, these obsolete paper and print transients have become consigned to the box file of dusty nostalgia. Perhaps they're becoming collectibles in their own right.
Whenever I browse through these vintage ads, I wonder if anyone was lucky enough to have had one of the 100 up-for-grabs gleaming Raleigh Chopper bikes delivered to the door... or anything else we so desperately desired as kids, back in the homeland of our childhood, the last century?
Tony K
My brother and I did send away for a cereal prize; we had to consume 5 boxes of a certain cereal (I believe it was AlphaBits) and then mail in the boxtops. In return we received an assortment of plastic prehistoric creatures (dinosaurs, early mammals and cavemen) along with some plastic mountains...in short, a Marx Prehistoric Playset!
ReplyDelete50 years later, if one searches my model railroad they'll discover, deep in the woods, a caveman figure from that very same set.
Welcome Capt. Steve and thank you for dropping by. Now that sounds like a substantial assortment of prehistoric plastic you and your brother bagged there. Great to know that you still have a caveman from that original pack, hiding out in the woods near the train track. These childhood survivors are priceless :)
DeleteThat's a neat thing to collect. It really does capture an age. I had the Star Trek starfleet badge and it can be seen in my primary school photo! I've since managed to get another example!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kevin. They were a very visual part of our childhood, yet so easily overlooked today compared to the things they promoted. As a lad, I collected the Star Trek badges as well. I think it's brilliant that you sported your Star Fleet badge for a school photo. How that put the photo in to a specific time frame and what a nice personal tribute to a great TV series! Did you manage to get any of the Doctor Who badges as well? :)
DeleteI don't think I had any Doctor Who stuff as a kid. Odd now I think back. I only began watching from Pertwee but I did like it. Comic strips are about all I remember having though.
DeleteI began watching from the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who era as well, Kevin. Sugar Smacks included Doctor Who badges in 1971. This worthwhile set included, The Doctor, Jo Grant, The Master, The Brigadier, Bessie and a UNIT badge, which I believe is the more difficult one to find. Weetabix also fed the popularity of Doctor Who, but perhaps a little later in the seventies :)
DeleteGreat to see Tony, your pick proves that vintage ads are an art form of its own.
ReplyDeleteThanks Arto, glad you like them. I agree, art and design was everything for these old fashioned adverts. In a world where everything's on the internet, it's sometimes nice just to hold a simple piece of printed paper from the past :)
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