Vintage Ad of the Week – October 31, 2024
Saturday Evening Post – January 3, 1959
I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to find a few more evenly gendered ads. In that spirit, we have a man and his ball. Bowling ball that is.
Ads that use bowling are a bit hard to come by. You wouldn’t think so, since the Golden Age of Bowling wasn’t that long ago. During the 1960s-1970’s pro bowlers were being signed on for boku bucks. Some even rivaled contracts of NFL players.1 It was big business. The advertising executives at Vicks knew a good thing when they married cold tablets with bowling. Bowling was so huge it had stars like Dick Clark and Jayne Mansfield advertising for AMF (American Machine and Foundry), which had moved into the bowling industry after WWII.2 AMF helped to automate the game, by creating a pin setting machine as early as 1946.3 With its rise in popularity in 1959 it’s no wonder companies wanted to get in on the game. Not to mention, men get colds too. What a great way to grab a man’s attention.
A quick snapshot of Vicks. Vicks was founded back in 1894. They would go on to create a host of healthcare products. A quick rundown of their most famous products include4:
- 1894 – Vicks Croup & Pneumonia Salve
- 1911 – VapoRub
- 1931 – Vicks Cough Drops
- 1941 – Vicks Inhaler
- 1951 – Vick’s Cough Sryup
- 1958 – Vick’s Formula 44
- 1959 – Sinex Nasal Spray
- 1966 – NyQuil
- 1974 – DayQuil
- 2012 – ZzzQuil
- 2018 – VapoCool
That is some powerhouse of over the counter cold and flu assistance.
There are a few things to really love about this ad. First, the fact that they claim it helps relieve colds and sinus pain up to 53% faster. Not 50%, nor 55%, but 53%. It is so precise. They don’t present any evidence to back this 53% claim up. Misleading? Most likely, but it sounds good.
Secondly, the tablets are “double buffered” to speed up relief. What does “double buffered” mean? It piqued my interest, so I looked it up. All I could find was the use of the term “buffer” with reference to computers and the definition as it relates to medicine or chemistry in general. MedLibretexts.org defines buffering as, “buffer: A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid.” Frankly, when I hear the word “buffer” I think of the generic meaning, to create a distance or protective space around something. If someone were to ask, what comes into your mind when you hear the words “medicine” and “buffer”, I would reply “Bufferin”, which is common NSAID whose base is aspirin. Either way, to tout something is “double buffered” sure does sound marvelous on paper. Its promise of fast relief ads certainty. If you know what “double buffered” means with relation to Vicks Cold Tablets, let me know in the comments, please.
Finally, this ad has a guy bowling. At first glance one might think, what’s so great about this ad? It’s just another sexist ad from the 50s. A guy and his bowling ball. How old fashioned. But, look in the background. His wife/girlfriend/date/sister plays an important part in this ad. She’s keeping score. I know it sounds like such a little thing, but I still love it. Back in 1959, they didn’t have automatic scoring. You had to score your own game on paper. I find the harmony of this ad, very refreshing. Just two people out having a good time. Celebrating the power of Vicks to make you feel stronger, faster. What fun!
Oh, and the last line, “Pick you up fast…relieve that tied, dragged-out feeling of a cold with two stimulating “pick-up” medications.” is cute. Not only will you pick yourself up fast using this medicine, but you can “pick-up” those spare pins, once you are feeling better with Vicks Cold Tablets.
- Fea, John, and John Fea. “The Golden Age of Bowling.” Current, 26 Mar. 2014, currentpub.com/2014/03/26/the-golden-age-of-bowling/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
↩︎ - “1959 Archives – International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame.” International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame, 2023, http://www.bowlingheritage.com/tag/1959/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
↩︎ - Center, Smithsonian Lemelson. “Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.” Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, invention.si.edu.
↩︎ - “Vicks.” Vicks.com, vicks.com/en-us/vicks-history.
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