Red text with blue illustration of a yelling big-headed woman on a white background.

Culligan is an international water softening and purification company based in Rosemont, Illinois. Culligan is known for it's advertisements of a housewife yelling out the slogan "Hey Culligan man!" The campaign was originally created in 1959, and ran for 3 decades.

Brown and red text inside white banner, vertically split yellow and red background.

Wilson's Corn King Bacon is a premium brand that has its roots in Chicago's notorious stockyards of the early 1900s. Thomas E. Wilson (1868-1958) worked his way up from railroad car checker to president during his 25 year career at the southside's Morris & Co., but it was his subsequent role at struggling New York-based meat packing company Saltzberger & Sons (S&S) which stamped his name on the bacon. Wilson moved the headquarters to Chicago's Union Stock Yark and renamed the company Wilson & Co, Inc. in 1918.

Not letting anything go to waste, Wilson's side project as president of the Ashland Manufacturing Company (1915-1918) used animal by-products from its slaughterhouses to make tennis racket strings, violin strings and surgical sutures. Later renamed Thomas E. Wilson Company (Wilson Sporting Goods), the company expanded to include all sorts of sporting equipment. 

A blue gramophone features white text within the image. The background is white.

The Columbia Graphophone Company was the UK subsidiary of the Columbia Phonograph Company. The Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 and sold Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders, including some cylinder recordings of its own. The Graphophone Company became the UK subsidiary in 1922 and in 1931 it merged with the Gramophone Company to form EMI, or Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. 

"Army" of starched folded shirts marching on a map of the North America continent. Map is in orange, blue and white and surrounded by a dark blue ring with white text.

The slogan "The Clean Shirts of America" shows up in several newspapers advertising local companies providing laundry and cleaning services. Ad copy in the ads is the same or similar, all promoting the benefits of a clean shirt.

"Its procedure is simple. 1. Put on a clean shirt. 2. Look, feel and act prosperous. There's nothing like a clean shirt for boosting the morale. Join the Clean Shirts of America and take your place in the Big Parade Back to Better Times!"

The ads appear in the early 1930's coinciding with the Great Depression. The ads speak directly to the times: "boosting the morale" of the throngs of Americans out of work, and referencing "better times." Some of the ads include the Blue Eagle symbol - NRA Member: We Do Our Part" - representing companies that comply with the National Industrial Recovery Act.

White lettering on light blue background

"Please don't squeeze the Charmin" was an expression said by fictional supermarket manager Mr. George Whipple. The hugely popular, and successful television commercials ran in the US from 1964 to 1985 and showed Mr. Whipple scolding customers who "squeeze the Charmin" while he would secretly squeeze Charmin when he thought no one was watching.

The famous tagline was created by John V. Chervokas, a 28-year old advertising writer at Benton & Bowles in 1964, for Proctor & Gamble's toilet paper brand. British-born actor Dick Wilson who played grocer Mr. Whipple in over 500 Charmin commercials said, "I've done thirty-eight pictures and nobody remembers any of them, but they all remember me selling toilet paper."

A colorful illustration of a young farm boy sitting on a bench, leaning on a canvas sack and wooden barrel, cutting into a large loaf of bread. Black text circles the illustration.

Ceresota is a brand of flour introduced in 1891 by the Northwestern Consolidate Milling Company, the world's second largest flour milling company at the time, based in Minneapolis. As American flour milling migrated to the east coast, the mills were gradually closed in 1940-1950s. "The Million Bushel Elevator" Ceresota Building is one of only four remaining flour mills of the 34 operating in Minneapolis during the early twentieth century. Ceresota is currently sold in parts of the Midwest, New Jersey and Pennsylvania by private companies The Uhlmann Company and American Home Foods.

A black and white photograph of a women appears over a white background with black text.

This was an advertisement for High Admiral Cigarettes. It first appeared in the early 1900s. The image may be a reference to Carmen, an opera that was first performed in 1875.

High Admiral Cigarettes are a brand owned by The National Cigarette and Tobacco Company.  Their flagship brand, Admiral, was first marketed in 1883.  Other brands produced by the company included: Royal Sweets, Opera Lights and Yellow Kid.  Known for their outrageous publicity stunts and forward thinking marketing, National was eventually absorbed into American Tobacco.

Red background with white text. White circle in the center with a blue drawing of a distressed-looking man sticking his tongue out and holding his face, with bubbles in the air around him.

In 1972, an Alka-Seltzer commercial aired in which "Ralph" moans "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" while his wife teases him and then advises him to take some Alka-Seltzer. The 30 second commercial was an immediate hit and received CLIO Hall of Fame recognition. It was remade in 2005 with Frank and Marie Barone (Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts), the lovable couple from "Everyone Loves Raymond." Both ads manage to promote the product in a memorable way, while being highly entertaining. Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain reliever which was first sold in 1931.

Black text on banner image with pink and black checker board background.

Known by their consistent checkerboard logo, this New York City institution has boasted the largest selection of jeans since 1973. Carrying both new and used clothing, the trendy shop caters to an eclectic mix of urban shoppers. Although their popular Broadway location in Manhattan closed in 2002, the Brooklyn location kept its doors open.

Yellow background with diagonal green stripes. Green text outlined in white around the top of an illustration depicting an open green cabbage head behind a baby with blue eyes looking through its legs, showing the closed drop-seat of its blue footed pajamas.

The Cabbage Patch Kids sprung from the imagination of art school student Xavier Roberts in 1978. His signature is, in fact, stamped on each doll's behind. As "Chief of Staff" of Babyland General Hospital, it is also printed on the "official" birth certificate packaged with each doll sold. The dolls had vinyl heads, cloth bodies, and yarn for hair. Children were asked to mail in adoption papers to register.

The dolls are a product of the late 1970s American folk art movement. What started out as handmade dolls at craft fairs, morphed into Little People and hit their popularity peak around 1983. That year's holiday season sent parents into the trenches to wrestle over the small supply of dolls stores had to sell. The following year they launched the Preemie line, recognizable at the time for their lack of yarn hair. 

The original dolls were manufactured by Coleco who filed for bankruptcy in 1988. Over the years the dolls have been in the care of toy makers Hasbro, Mattel, and Toys-R-Us. Play Along Toys currently holds exclusive licensing rights. The popularity of the 1980s has not returned, but the Cabbage Patch Kids continue to be one of the longest-lived doll franchises, reporting over 124 million adoptions.