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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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The ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ Special Was the Flop That Wasn’t

In 1965, CBS gambled big on an animated spectacular that’s now become a holiday tradition

The Museum of Feelings can pretty much be summed up by this photo.

Fear and Loathing at the Museum of Feelings

Can a corporate marketing stunt fulfill the raised expectations of a “museum”?

Cool Finds

Remember These Free AOL CDs? They’re Collectibles Now

1000 hours free! Sign on today!

Cool Finds

How a Captain Morgan Advertisement Inspired an Emergency Room Technique

Captain Morgan, hip fixer

The first edition of The Guinness Book of Records had a waterproof cover to protect it from pub spills.

The Guinness Book of World Records: A Promotional Stunt That Became an International Phenomenon

The book that makes us ooh and ahh, and squirm in our seats is more than 65 years old

Times Square, New York City

Cool Finds

Times Square’s Iconic Billboards May Be Illegal

Bright lights, big city, breaking the law

Ornamental weathervanes once adorned the cupolas of the stand-alone Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, hinting at a bygone folk era and forecasting the multi-directional dominance of its corporate future.

How Colonel Sanders Made Kentucky Fried Chicken an American Success Story

A weathervane from the Smithsonian collections is emblematic of Harland Sanders’s decades-long pursuit to make his chicken finger-lickin’ good

Still from Coca-Cola advertisement

American History Museum Scholar on the History of the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” Advertisement

The commercial that closed out the series finale of “Mad Men,” explained

Actor Jon Hamm sporting the iconic fedora and gray suit of his alter ego, Don Draper, from the popular television show "Mad Men." Draper's suit and fedora, along with Betty Francis' yellow housedress and other props were donated to the Smithsonian.

Don Draper’s Gray Suit and Fedora Are Among “Mad Men Props” Donated to the Smithsonian

Members of the television show’s stellar cast, along with director Matthew Weiner, dropped off some significant “Mad Men” swag

Cocoa roasters at the Hershey Chocolate Company in Pennsylvania

The World of Chocolate

The Short Rise and Fall of the Crazy-for-Cocoa-Trade Cards Craze

In the late 19th-century, when you bought chocolate, the grocer dropped a delightful prize into your bag, a trade card to save and share

Cool Finds

How Halitosis Became a Medical Condition With a “Cure”

Bad breath wasn’t perceived as a medical condition until one company realized that it could help them sell mouthwash

Cool Finds

The World of Personal Computers in the 1980s Was A Wacky, Wonderful Place

You can experience early video games and operating systems yourself through retrocomputing and ads

The Park Avenue facade of the Pepsi-Cola Corporation World Headquarters, designed by SOM

The Architectural History of Pepsi-Cola, Part 1: The ‘Mad Men’ Years

In the 1960s, Pepsi rebranded with a new slogan, a new look, and a cutting edge modernist building

Singer in pillbox hat, 1958

‘I Remember’: An Artist’s Chronicle of What We Wore

In the 1970s, Joe Brainard wrote a book-length poem that paid heed to fashion

“Where there’s smoke there’s fire” by Russell Patterson, 1920s

The History of the Flapper, Part 5: Who Was Behind the Fashions?

Sears styles sprung from the ideas of European artists and couturiers

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