We've added 3 very stylish full pages in red and black, advertising Bird's desserts. A famous brand then and still a famed favourite today.
 Bright and lively late fifties advertising from Wall's Ice Cream - Check it out in detail here
Here at Retrofair we specialise in giving you the chance to see and buy some of the finest vintage magazine ads published throughout the 20th century. But why should ads completely hog the scene when the very magazines that carried them had some remarkably striking and memorable covers and pictures?. With that in mind we are now delighted to bring you our new John Bull Magazine Cover Index featuring the slice-of-life illustrations by some of the UKs finest commercial artists. Although dated in style and fashion the scenes they depict are in many cases just as relevant today. Where possible we have included the expanded cover picture captions from the magazine editorial pages, so you can see the original context behind these startling images.
World Wide Magazine for Men was a 20th Century publishing phenomenon - once accurately and humorously described in The Times newspaper as all about "brave chaps with large moustaches on stiff upper lips, who did stupid and dangerous things" A British Monthly magazine started in 1898 and published right through to December 1965 with only 4 editions ever failing to make the presses. It featured wild tales of travel and daring adventures (mostly unbelievable) and all abundantly illustrated by eminent artists of the day such as Terence Cuneo, William Barnes Wollen, John Charlton to name just a few.
One of the hallmarks of the World Wide Magazine is it's wonderful colourful front covers that never fail to capture the imagination and raw the reader in
No pictorial review of World Wide Magazine would be complete with a mention of the wonderful male focused vintage macho ads that packed each issue. No doubt taken very seriously at the time but now serve to raise a few laughs.
For a more comprehensive historical view of this Wide Man's World I highly recommend you take a look at Greg Ray's excellent page
It's a Wide, Wide, Wide, Wide World!!! Dreamt up for their client Maximidia Seminars. This set of highly creative amusing ads by Sao Paulo ad agency 'Moma', is just too good to ignore. I wonder how things will look when these social giants really are as old as the average vintage ad I like to display here.
Whilst Coca Cola dominates the soft drinks vintage ad scene it's easy to forget Schweppes the huge soft drinks brand that was never afraid to break the mold with their quirky amusing Schweppervesence ads. Here's a couple of 'Schwepping days to Christmas' ad for now, and you can be sure I will be adding a lot more Scheppervescence to this blog
Ever since I first set eyes on the towering image below I have admired the ads produced for the Budd Company during the late 40's and early 50's. They mainly featured specially commissioned works from the extraordinary illustrator Leslie Ragan. Sadly under appreciated in his time. These days Ragan's work could easily be considered as visual interpretation of scenes from Ayn Rand's futurist novel 'Atlas Shrugged'. To see a lot more of Ragan's visions visit our Leslie Ragan gallery page. And to read a little more about this great commercial artist's work and influence I recommend these two excellent blogs Erratic Phenomena and Illustration Art  As a life long ad man, I have come to appreciate the craft and teamwork that go into pulling together a good ad or a even a bad one for that matter. And over the years I have looked back in awe at the creative quality and thinking that that went into some of the last century's brand building campaigns. As historical documents of modern living vintage ads still have a lot of going for them. Here are a few good reasons why I think they are still worthy of display. I'd love to hear your views about why original vintage ads are great to collect.
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