1943 and Santa's disposed with the jeeps and army helmets, stopped mentioning the war, and started selling underwear. Things are grim...

Prince Albert in a Can? Santa's back to selling monkeys for your back. Now in the nice gingerbread cancer ward style.

Before the war the rich could board a Constellation or Clipper for exotic locals but for the average Joe and Jane it was trains and automo...

1943 and reality has come home for Christmas. This realization is shown eloquently in this ad for Stromberg-Carlson radios, morphing from...

A spot of color from 1942! While pouring over ads from that year, this one practically screams at you for its use of color. No black-and-...

I had a Roadmaster bike as a kid. It was what hipsters would call a 'fixie' - no gears and pedal brakes. I rode that bike all ove...

Remember when a carton of cigarettes was a good Christmas gift? Me either. I certainly remember a lot of smoking during the holidays. I r...

Santa Grinch would like to dissuade you from talking with your friends and loved ones at Christmas time. 1942 was a grim time, grim with ...

Little Father's Day gift for the common fellow, franks and Seagram's 5 Crown from Life Magazine, June 1945. Looks like the beginning...

I've always had a soft spot for suspenders. It's my love of all things 20's and 30's, I think. That and growing up in the ...

Not so sure about adding a bottle of Paul Jones blended whiskey to my Christmas list, but man dig the mid-century office desk and chairs! ...

Want to feel old? Dig into the magazine archives and find something that you remember. Not as in, "oh yeah, I've seen that ad be...

Some of you may have just got up to begin the annual, November turkey ritual. Stumbling to the kitchen to put the bird in the roastin...

I didn't know Dinah Shore had a position on the presence of pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving table. One thing is clear, she's not ...

Usually I wouldn't choose a Campbell's ad as part of the turkey day buffet, but this one struck me both because it features mushr...

An extra helping of chocolate on this Veteran's Day. Nestles ad from the mid-forties promoting the caloric content of chocolate. Ther...

Okay, so it's not technically a food ad, but it does have a budget-saver recipe. Hey, what more could you ask? Besides, I omitted a c...

Jello, bane of school lunches, wiggly wrong on the dinner table, it's hard to imagine gelatin as a special treat during the holidays ...

Ketchup or catsup? My first instinct when writing the word is to use catsup, and I can't really tell you why. Both words mean the sam...

A rare 1940's ad for Life Savers as a conversation starter at the masquerade ball. Mini Life Saver rolls were a standard in our Hallo...