50 Inspiring Vintage Advertisements
Posted by Andrew Lindstrom / Inspiration,Lists / September 30th, 2008
Like many others I find myself captivated with vintage advertising. There have been numerous articles, blog posts and websites dedicated to the subject and I just can’t seem to get enough.
Specifically, it is the advertising of the 50’s and 60’s that is most aesthetically pleasing to me. It seems every ad in that era was either a beautifully shot photograph or a stunning Rockwellian painting. Not to mention the incredible attention given to layout and typography.
The following are 50 of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy them.
Western Electric
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Volkswagen
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Sony
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Lightolier
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Campbell’s
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Molson’s Golden Ale
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Monroe
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Burroughs Corporation
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Bigelow Carpet
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Ford Fairlane
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Ronrico
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Western Electric
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International Transtar-400
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Lustre Creme
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Volkswagen
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Ozite Carpet Tiles
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Corvette
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Dobbs
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Eve Filter Cigarettes
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Air Canada
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Wild Westerns
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Pabst Blue Ribbon
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Pontiac Bolero
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Smirnoff
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Motorola
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Western Electric
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Budweiser
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Ouija Board
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Frigidaire
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Churchman’s No. 1
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Kenmore Dryer
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International De Luxe Delivery Trucks
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Levis
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Pontiac Bonneville
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Career Club Shirts
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Textron Fabrics
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Bell Telephone System
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Crescendoe
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Honda
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Tide
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Sprite
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Burton Cool Suit
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Ford Mustang
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Vespa
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Dodge
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Twiggy Lashes
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Cadillac
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AC Spark Plugs
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Emba
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Volkswagen
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It should be mentioned that many advertisements from this era were very politically incorrect. I’ve excluded such ads from this list as I feel it would draw the attention away from these particular selections. Though it may be the subject of a future post.
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Yo, I'm Andrew Lindstrom. I am a freelance web designer based in Vancouver, Canada. When not geeking out over design, I'm likely geeking out over film, technology or pretending to play the guitar.
i love this site, what a collection. thanks.
I am loving those so much,
check out this collection of vintage ads
http://www.designsdelight.com/vintage-ads/vintage-ads/
I stumbled on this, and what a find! Some great work, some poignant reminders of how fast the world has been transformed by technology in the past 60 years. Thanks.
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These ads are inspiring, telling us as much about ourselves as about the products. Fascinating look back over our history.
Best,
Charles Seymour Jr
twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads
I like the AC spark plugs ad – the others were cool as well.
Wow these are amazing! I love the Air Canada and Sprite ads! 😀
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing these
I Love Too Look At All The Vintage Goodies.
Some of them are strangely ironic.
B.
[…] cool Blog Post. […]
[…] Via: wellmedicated […]
[…] Ce qui est intéressant c’est de voir l’incroyable attention accordée à la mise en page et la typographie de ce genre d’affiches. C’est graphique et beau… Voici quelques exemples dans la suite, mais le tout est disponible sur ce le blog well Medicated […]
this is my first time seeing beautiful vintage ads.
i probably too fed up with more popular scary vintage ads.
duh.
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I really do enjoy looking back at this kind of stuff, it is amzing how a company slowly changes in front of your eyes, but it isn’t until you do something like this that you can really see the difference 🙂 thanks
supersuper ! dankjewel !
[…] Inspiring vintage advertisements Great posters and old stuff. […]
Love it! Smirnoff was fantastic – “Come out of your shell” that just cracks me up! that’s Woody right?
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Appalling apostrophe confusion in that International Harvester ad.
are you all calling this advertising, hell, my 2 month old baby does even better when it has an old rusted spoon up his ass!!!!!!!! losers
nice collection
nice! especially the smirnoff ad with woody allen!!
LOVE THESE! Great work compiling. Only one thing I wish that could have been included is the year the ads ran. Now that would have been really interesting – though probably difficult to get.
Its just amazing to see how sophisticated advertising has become over the years. I love that most of the messages in the ads were less than 140 characters!!
Ouija Board is my favourite – kinda creepy but hilarious at the same time.
[…] 50 Inspiring Vintage Ads […]
[…] October 21, 2009 That’s not a very nice thing to say about that girl… Oh what innocent times! 50 other examples of advertising in a bygone era here […]
Absolutely wonderful collection! You really see how far advertising and illustration has fallen since the 1990s. Everything’s so formal and bland now, but back then, advertising was much more playful, eye-catching and whimsical, especially in the 60s and 70s. What happened to the colorful backdrops, clever puns, and funny images? Why is advertising so uptight today and relying so heavily on boring imagery? 😐
Advertising is not what it used to be.
The most fascinating thing is that they even advertised for Ouija boards.
I’m trying to figure out what the lady in the mink is doing with that poor monkey! Maybe sizing him up for her next jacket?!
very inspiring…have always been intrigued by vintage ads…
That electrician only made $8,500 a year?!?! That carpet must have only been like 5 bucks to install then!
sweet stuff!! i actually had a pair of the green striped levi flares!! a lot of these ads feel like they were in playboys!!
Love it!! Quite inspiring indeed! =)
Love the Ronrico ad
Amazing collection of vintage ads, Western Electric picturephone I like the most!
Reminds me of simpler times, when an ad could be knocked out in a morning, you charged two months salary for it and spent the afternoon in the bar telling each other how great you were and how lucky the client was!
The work was good though – simple but good