Here's a bunch of ads that appeared in IPC comics in 1970 and early 1971. Kicking off above with a promotion for space stickers that were free in boxes of Sugar Smacks. Back when cereals were allowed to carry incentives like free gifts. Back when there were Sugar Smacks! (Which I personally always found tastier than their rivals Sugar Puffs.)
Next, an ad for a very slim Cadbury bar which carried free cards. In fact the bar wasn't much bigger than the cards as I recall.
Spacex! I barely remember this toy brand, but I think I had one of the models.
A full page promo for The Sun from the pages of Scorcher comic. A blatant way to encourage kids to get their parents to buy that newspaper...
Corgi Rockets were a rival to Hot Wheels. I had a Corgi Rockets Triple-loop set, because I was familiar with Corgi cars so the advertising didn't have to work too hard to convince me.
Puffa Puffa Rice was another cereal that's no longer around, as far as I know. In 1970 they were giving away various plastic warriors. Nice little toy figures. I still have a couple of them, as you can see in the photo after the ad...
Spears Games produced several stocking fillers, - relatively cheap but well made games for the Christmas market. Here's their 1970 ad, alongside small ads for Jacoskates and Subbuteo!
This View-Master ad reads like something Don Draper might create in Mad Men. It really sells the product well. View-Master was incredibly popular back in the sixties and seventies...
Brooke Bond tea regularly gave away free cards, changing the subject matter on a yearly basis. In 1971, with the Moon landing still relatively fresh in the memory, The Race Into Space was the subject...
Free cards were considered a good incentive to sell products, and were comparatively cheap to produce. Even Walls Sausages were at it!
I'll post more old ads at a later date. By the way, if you're new to this blog, click on each image to see it larger.
Some previous blog entries about ads in comics:
7 comments:
And who can forget the highly ethical Park Drive Football Yearbook were kids were encouraged to persuade their parents to save up the vouchers in Park Drive fags so they could send off for the yearbook at Xmas.
I had one of those. My dad needed no encouragement to smoke unfortunately.
Regarding the Kellogg's cereals, Wikipedia says that Puffa Puffa Rice was axed in 1975 (they only existed for eight years), and Sugar Smacks disappeared for a time but can apparently now be found in Poundland as Puffa Wheats (there's a citation needed tag on that statement though). In the US, they're still widely available as Honey Smacks. Apparently Sugar Puffs, which have just been renamed Honey Monster Puffs, are too popular for Honey Smacks to compete with.
Thanks for the info, James. Last time I saw Sugar Puffs I noticed the word 'Sugar' was smaller so I guessed it'd be inevitable they'd soon drop it. Sheesh. Perhaps we should complain that Honey Monster Puffs don't actually contain monsters. :)
The Sun is a newspaper ??!!
Hi, can you tell me where is the Pirate puffa puff ad? thanks.
It appeared on the back cover of IPC comics such as Valiant and Lion. It's been two years since I scanned these ads so I don't know the specific issue now, sorry.
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