My Top 10 Favorite Retro Ads

Some of the best ads from the past seem to come from the 1940s IMO. It's just not because the illustration and photography was top notch, but because advertisers tried everything they could to emulate Hollywood cinema.

Take this ad for rubber medical products from Miller and B.F. Goodrich. The way it's shot-- dramatic lighting and all-- it looks like something from a dramatic film. It could even be mistaken for a film still!

When you think of high fashion black and white photography, the last thing you would think of is children's clothing. Yet this striking 1959 ad for the Alyssa line of dresses for little girls did just that. It's probably one of the rare instances when it's ever been applied in this way.

The '70s had some of the funkiest and weirdest ads of any decade. Just check out this cool ad for Mojud pantyhouse! Can you imagine something this cool and innovative today? No way!

A lot of advertising relied on cute babies to sell their products. Ivory was one of the biggest users of this tactic and also one of the best. Just look at this ad. Isn't it absolutely adorable?

Before I really got into vintage advertising, I used to think that it was probably very stuffy and overly serious. But to my surprise, there seemed to be a lot more humor in the past than there is today, especially in ads that tended to appear in Life Magazine. I just love how the models are hamming it up in this ad. It's so hysterical!

Back in the 30s and 40s, advertising was a lot more shameless when it came to pandering to people's fears. This ad is a typical example: it actually makes the suggestion that bad breath can ruin a relationship. But no worries-- use Colgate and just like the couple, both you and your significant other can be "on the beam!"

In the '70s, Salem came out with the most absurd ad campaign of all time, one that equated smoking with "spring" and "freshness." Many times the models were posed against the backdrop of The Great Outdoors, somehow suggesting that filling your lungs with smoke was the same as taking in a hit of fresh, pollution free country air. They were all absurd but I picked this one because it's by far the stupidest of them all!

I absolutely love this ad, because it's such a sly reference to classical art. In case you missed it, the ad is mimicking an art motif going back centuries, that of the Three Graces. You can see a great example of a Three Graces piece at this Wikimedia.org page.

This is definitely one of my most favorite ads of all time, because it's just so plain tacky in every way possible. Clearly geared towards women, you would think that this ad could've gotten a less sleazier character to play Mr. Right. The woman's demeanor is just so silly-- she's probably in her late '20s yet she's averting her eyes shyly like a little schoolgirl! The whole scenario is just cringe-inducing because of the subtext of the ad: drinking gets you laid. Being that this ad appeared during the height of the Sexual Revolution where one night stands were the norm, it's no surprise that hooking up was used as a selling point.

Chesterfield put out some of the most glamorous cigarette ads in advertising history, but this to me is the creme of the crop. It's yet another example of how advertising often took a page from movies and tried to emulate its most dramatic effects. Since Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes on screen, a lot of effort was taken to give this ad the same mood and feel as his movies. The admen did a great job, I think!