Thursday, April 12, 2012

Reading Has Sex Appeal

Some class is having students do papers on Harvard University as a brand.  This reminded me of my small collection of old advertisements for the Harvard Classics.  This first one was one of the earliest, and I stupidly did not take down the source.  Since then, I've used all the indexes that include ad text, but I still can't track it down.  I was able to find a better copy in a book*, but the book gave no source information.  I love this ad, because it touts the Classics as a marital aid.
(For a larger image go here.)

I have other, less racy examples too.

 Life, September 28, 1922 page 27
(For a larger image go here.)
Life, Novemeber 23, 1922 page 27
(For a larger image go here.)

*Those were the good old days: a happy look at American advertising, 1880-1930, by Edgar R. Jones, Simon & Schuster: New York, 1959, page 310.

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