Do you remember buying a comic book and clipping out the back to order one of its many advertised toys, only to be disappointed in what was actually sent to you?
Advertisements were a common feature of comic books that mainly started in the 1940s, and since they were directed at young people, they often made sensational claims. Normally you would send out for novelty items, pranks, collectable coins, and body building courses, but you could never be sure what kind of quality the item would be once it arrived at your door.
Early on, comics were the best venues for toy sellers to market their products (radio programs and newspapers were also popular), as home televisions weren’t widely available.
Many may have seen the Charles Atlas bodybuilding ads that appeared in comics from the 1940s up until the 1980s. They usually featured a cartoon of a skinny young man being threatened by a bully. The man goes home, orders the Atlas book to gain strength, then finds the bully to beat him up. Some of the ads’ most iconic slogans were “The Insult that Made a Man out of Mac,” “Hey Skinny! Yer Ribs Are Showing!” and “Let Me Give You a Body that Men Respect and Women Admire!”
Another popular item to send away for was a pair of X-ray specs. They were advertised as allowing you to see through solid objects, which of course wasn’t accurate. However, the disclaimer saying it was just an optical illusion should have been a clue as to its effectiveness.
If you were looking to buy the amazing, real humanoid sea creatures that you saw advertised, surely you were disappointed when you were sent dried brine shrimp that livened up when you added them to water. These sea-monkeys were heavily marketed in the 1960s and 1970s but still remain today. Of course, there was an easily-missed small print at the bottom of the ads claiming “caricatures shown not intended to depict Artemia salina (the species of the brine shrimp).”
Another disappointing but funny item: the “Frontier Cabin.” Although the ad promised it was “big enough for 2-3 kids,” what would actually be delivered was a padded envelope, and inside was a tightly folded vinyl sheet that had a cabin design. It became cabin-shaped only after draping it over furniture. Cleverly, the ad never actually said it would fit 2-3 kids, just that it was big enough.
What novelty items did you pay for? Were they ever what you anticipated?
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_in_comic_books
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/30420/11-shameless-comic-book-ads-cost-us-our-allowance-money
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-strange-history-of-comic-book-advertisements