A non-advertising friend of mine (I still have a few of those) tweeted this great link to print ads of the past. Real ones! Not just award-winning-awesome-Lemon-VW ads. It’s broken down by years and product categories. I found it interesting to see the evolution of advertising. Like in the 30′s they wrote a TON of copy. In the 80′s it was a glossy photo with a headline that didn’t really say anything. Mostly I laughed at the horribleness and gasped at what they got away with. But,there were a few times where I thought, “Damn that is a cool illustration and check that typeface!” I think when I retweeted the link it said something like “It’s all here, the history of advertising. Laugh, cry, make it better.” Enough said.

Old Ads

- Lindsay Stevens