Oct 26, 2023
1937 issue of Dr. Miles' Almanac contained "It's A Fact" blurbs in their ads for Alka-Seltzer, Dr. Miles' Pain Pills, and Aspir-Mint -- along with the occasional bit of dubious advice.
seen from Netherlands
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seen from United States
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seen from Singapore
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seen from Malaysia
1937 issue of Dr. Miles' Almanac contained "It's A Fact" blurbs in their ads for Alka-Seltzer, Dr. Miles' Pain Pills, and Aspir-Mint -- along with the occasional bit of dubious advice.
When I was a kid, the shoe brand Skechers had a superhero mascot named Z-Strap who was a velcro-themed skateboard ninja. My family went back-to-school shopping at the mall one day, and I noticed that some Skechers boxes had Z-Strap comic books in them, basically just print versions of the commercials, but I was an impressionable young lad who thought ads were fun to watch back then, so I went from box to box looking for different issues. I only found two. They both had "price: $1.00" printed on the cover, so I asked my parents if they would buy them for me. They uncharacteristically said yes, but the comics didn't have barcodes on them because they were not for sale, just promotional tie-ins for kids who bought skechers, so the cashier had no idea where they came from or how I found them, so they let me have them for free. Two poor kids got cheated out of their comics because of me.
I don't think I still have either, but I googled them and it turns out there were a bunch of different issues with different characters I'd never seen before, a whole pantheon of shoe-themed mascots and villains. These are the two I had
The first one was better.
I don't know what triggered this memory, but I've been thinking about these comics all day today. It's been well over 10 years since I read them, maybe closer to 15, and they had little redeeming value or artistic merit, but they were the first comic books I ever owned so I have a nostalgia-blind soft spot for them. I was the type of kid who wanted to see a show based on the goldfish crackers (I shipped Brooke and Gilbert before I even knew what shipping was), so I was the perfect audience for ADVERTAINMENT. That's despicable in retrospect, but I didn't know what capitalism was back then and didn't see a problem with it.
I would rather scoop both my eyes out with a melonballer than watch an ad on purpose. That's why I've given up disney movies.
