Throughout the 20th century, tennis signified that you were a member of the leisure class, and companies used that image to sell everything from soda pop to cigarettes.
An interesting selection of ads here from different sections of the 20th, yet only one (Dayton Steel Racquet from ’22) is a direct ad for the sport itself. The rest definitely want their products associated with it; some more subtle than others.
My own favorites here are the action-oriented Ethyl gas, Lucky Strike and 7-up ads, but they’re all really good. Oh! The Willys Car ad could almost have been a ’31 Post cover. It’s also an early example of an ad not showing their product at all.
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An interesting selection of ads here from different sections of the 20th, yet only one (Dayton Steel Racquet from ’22) is a direct ad for the sport itself. The rest definitely want their products associated with it; some more subtle than others.
My own favorites here are the action-oriented Ethyl gas, Lucky Strike and 7-up ads, but they’re all really good. Oh! The Willys Car ad could almost have been a ’31 Post cover. It’s also an early example of an ad not showing their product at all.