vintage street & smith college football ad

-
Vintage Ad #122 - Scoreline Man!

Look down there, buried in that pile of sports magazines!

Slower than a snapping turtle!

Less powerful than a broken-down Geo!

Able to push copies of the Football News out of the way with extreme pain!

It's a double chin! It's a cheap cap!

It's Scoreline Man!

***

As the 1970s rolled into the 1980s, the number of handicappers ("experts" who promised to analyze sporting events, mostly football, to help their clients place winning bets) who advertised in the major college and pro football yearbooks rose rapidly. Services varied from phone lines providing the latest scores and quick tips, such as today's pick, to handicappers proudly showing off their luxury automobiles in Las Vegas to boast how their prowness for prediction made them wealthy. The proprietors ranged from dudes who later fled to Central America to the founder of the Psychic Friends Network (remember the Dionne Warwick informercials?).

These ads reached their peak in 1984, as handicapping companies snapped up newly-available full-colour ads. Cheap line drawings gave way to debonair businessmen, fans leaping from their Laz-E-Boys and busty babes. This Scoreline ad is one of the few that hints at being intentionally humourous. Our super-slob needs a phone badly - otherwise, he'll accidentally incinerate himself with his next cigarette.

Note the lesson in how to spell "Texas".

Source: Street & Smith College 1984 Football Yearbook 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

past pieces of toronto: knob hill farms

-
Image
From November 2011 through July 2012 I wrote the "Past Pieces of Toronto" column for OpenFile , which explored elements of the city which no longer exist. I've republished all but two of those pieces on this website.  Here's the first of the final pair, both of which provided good lessons for future writing. Prepare yourself for a lengthy preamble.
Read more

big v: once upon a time, it was an amazing part of your life

-
Image
While dodging back alley drunks in downtown Kitchener a month ago, I noticed that the back door to a Shoppers Drug Mart bore the mark of its previous identity as part of the Big V pharmacy chain. Years of hearing their slogan "an amazing part of your life" have burned it into my brain, along with images of their comical crusading knight mascot, 25 cent cans of Coca-Cola and the free lunch cooler bags sometimes offered up with the latter. Big V was started in the mid-1960s by a group of Windsor pharmacists who joined together to pool their purchasing and marketing. Most locations were pharmacist-operated, with names reflecting the owners (DeRe, Pond's , Cornett), the neighbourhood (Seminole in Windsor) or town. The chain grew to 135 stores by the time it was purchased by Shoppers in 1995. Amherstburg's store was originally Haslehurst's Big V, then switched to the more generic "Amherstburg" by the time I started shopping there with my parents. Loc
Read more

past pieces of toronto: albert britnell book shop

-
Image
From November 2011 through July 2012 I wrote the "Past Pieces of Toronto" column for OpenFile, which explored elements of the city which no longer exist. The following was originally posted on December 2, 2011. The Starbucks at 675 Yonge Street isn’t your typical branch of the corporate coffee giant. The walls are lined with sturdy old wooden bookshelves while the floor is a checkerboard of black and white. Why this location is not like the others is hinted at on the façade. Look up to the second floor and you’ll notice a legendary name in Toronto bookselling: Albert Britnell. The quality of the literature on the shelves inside doesn’t always match the standards the Britnell family maintained for over a century of book retailing, but it’s a nod to the building’s past that comes in handy while waiting for a friend or first date. English native Albert Britnell entered the book trade by working in his brother John’s bookstore in London. Both brothers moved to C
Read more