Quit Smoking Ad from 1900

Strategic placement in advertising is apparently not a new phenomenon.

Here is a newspaper clipping from The Grafton Leader in July 1900 (yes, that's right, 1900):




I think it's interesting that the Insurance Company is listed right before the tiny ad for "No-To-Bac." I'll bet they sell life insurance.

Okay, putting cynicism aside -or at least pushing it to the backseat- it's a fascinating ad:

"To quit tobacco easily and forever, be magnetic, full of life, nerve and vigor, take No-To-Bac, the wonder worker that makes weak men strong."

These selling techniques must work because we are bombarded with the same messages in modern advertising. Today the wording is not quite so blatant, but it's the same thing, only with a shinier, brighter, louder delivery - subtlety that's harder to laugh about.

Fifty cents or One Dollar. That's a ton of money for 1900; I'm not sure how to figure it out in today's dollars, but it had to be a lot of money back then.


I've been going through old, old magazines and books and I've come across lots of interesting things. What I find most fascinating, though, is the consistency and persistence of advertising. Nothing, really, has changed in more than 100 years. The only real difference is the mode of advertising - there are a hundred, possibly a thousand or more, new ways to target an audience.
We are targeted with effective, time-tested, honed techniques.

It's no wonder we've become a consumptive (yes, I meant to use consumptive) society with a serious credit problem.


***edited to add:
I forgot to tell you where I found this paper and why I was looking at it.
I'll tell you more later, both here and on the Taylor County blog.