Record companies released stereo demonstration albums that showcased how sound could move from left to right, creating a sense of movement.

How Savvy Advertising Helped Make Stereo Technology Mainstream

Stereo demonstrations and colorful ads sold customers on the two-channel sound technology when it was introduced 60 years ago

This advertisement from San Francisco-based electronic cigarette company JUUL calls back the tobacco advertisements from the mid-20th century.

Ads for E-Cigarettes Today Hearken Back to the Banned Tricks of Big Tobacco

A new ‘Joe Camel’-esque phenomenon may be igniting as the new fad takes a 21st-century page out of an old playbook

What the First Radio Commercial Jingle Sounded Like

Wheaties was one of the first companies to recognize the enormous potential of radio as an advertising tool

Likenesses of American Indians have been used to sell everything from cigars to station wagons.

Probing the Paradoxes of Native Americans in Pop Culture

A new exhibition picks apart the cultural mythologies surrounding the first “Americans”

These Billboards Could Be the First to Feature Immersive Virtual Reality Drawings

Tandem billboards on Sunset Boulevard play host to a fascinating new public art installation

H. J. Heinz started a condiment empire. His savvy marketing helped.

There Never Were 57 Varieties of Heinz Ketchup

The ‘57’ doesn’t actually refer to anything

This portrait by an anonymous photographer shows the face of the man who popularized the flush toilet: Thomas Crapper.

Three True Things About Sanitary Engineer Thomas Crapper

Thomas Crapper’s actual innovation was entirely tangential to the flush toilet

A friendly Nauga.

How the Nauga and its Fictional Friends Helped Make Synthetic Fabric Cuddly

What started out as an advertising ploy turned into a low-key cultural phenomenon

Bishop's long-lasting lipstick was advertised as "kissable."

Chemist Hazel Bishop’s Lipstick Wars

Bishop said her advantage in coming up with cosmetics was that, unlike male chemists, she actually used them

That yellow logo? A Dalí original, every one.

From Melting Clocks to Lollipops, Salvador Dalí Left His Mark on the Visual World

The Surrealist artist’s “pure, vertical, mystical love of cash” led him to advertising

A still from the 2015 film The Big Short, featuring actors Billy Magnussen and Max Greenfield.

New Research

From Budweiser to Heineken, Alcohol Brands Are Rampant in Hollywood Films

Over the past two decades, even G-rated films have amped up the booze labels

A poster by artist Edward Penfield promotes The Woman’s Land Army of America, created to encourage women to step into agricultural jobs after men were called into military service.

These Powerful Posters Persuaded Americans It Was Time to Join the Fight

The Smithsonian offers a rare opportunity to see an original iconic Uncle Sam “I Want You” poster, among others, of the World War I era

New "Don't mess with Texas" trash cans at the Texas capitol building in Austin.

The Trashy Beginnings of “Don’t Mess With Texas”

A true story of the defining phrase of the Lone Star state

After the defeat of Cleopatra's forces by Octavian (later Augustus, emperor of Rome), the Egyptian queen and her lover Marc Antony fled to Egypt. In Shakespeare's imagining, one of Cleopatra's greatest fears was the the horrid breath of the Romans. Shown here: "The Death of Cleopatra" by Reginald Arthur, 1892.

The History and Science Behind Your Terrible Breath

Persistent mouth-stink has been dousing the flames of passion for millennia. Why haven’t we come up with a cure?

Dissident artist Pyotr Pavlensky appears at Moscow's Tagansky District Court on suspicion of vandalism.

Cool Finds

Russian Burger King Campaign Isn’t the First to Mix Art and Advertising

There’s a lot of back-and-forth between these worlds

Manspreading, NYC, 1947
Artist: Amelia Opdyke Jones
New York Transit Museum Collection

Cool Finds

New Exhibit Shows Manspreading Has Been Taking up Subway Space for Decades

Vintage ads show struggles with transit etiquette

Cool Finds

This “Sweaty” Billboard Kills Mosquitoes

Gross gimmick or Zika-fighting innovation?

"Daisy Girl" changed the advertising tactics of American presidential candidates.

How the “Daisy” Ad Changed Everything About Political Advertising

Since the famous television spot ran in 1964, advertising agencies have sold presidential candidates as if they were cars or soap

Cool Finds

MAD Magazine’s Iconic Alfred E. Neuman Turns 60 This Year

The impish mascot has had a long, colorful life

Ralphie from A Christmas Story gets his decoder ring from Little Orphan Annie.

American Children Faced Great Dangers in the 1930s, None Greater Than “Little Orphan Annie”

Advertisements for Ovaltine were just part of the problem

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