Mejor, Mejora, Mejoral! 1954 (Pain Reliever)

Every time I go to my grandpa’s house I find something that I hadn’t seen before. This time, in one of many bookcases, I found an immense collection of Mexican Reader’s Digest (Selecciones). With Issues that date between 1954 to 1980, his collection of magazines is one of the most interesting and well kept archive of ads.

Is incredible to see the tendencies in design and advertising. How it goes from ads with very elaborate long paragraphs of copy paired up with incredible illustrations, to high impact one liners and simple photographs. Just flipping over these magazines one can learn how society has change and how advertising has adapted to it (or arguably vice-versa).

I took some photos of the ads that me and my dad found interesting, or funny (without trying to make a lot of noise, since my grandpa was sleeping in the room next door). It was great to have my dad with me to go through these magazines, because he was able to give me some insight on some of the campaigns he could remember.

I invite you to enjoy our selection, and let me know what you think.

Coca-Cola “Amor a las Letras” 1957

Remington “Travel-Riter Deluxe” 1960

Avon “Regalos Avon” 1959

Nescafé “Yo Soy Nescafé” 1959 (Instant Coffee)

Raleigh “Mientras Espera… Fume Raleigh” 1954

Crosley “Closley 17 Super-V” (the new miracle portable TV… sorry forgot to note the year on this one)

American Airlines “A San Antonio? Es Más Fácil por American Airlines!” 1962

Carta Blanca “Bienvenidos a Mexico” 1970

Canada Dry “Refrésquese y Deleitése con Canada Dry” 1960

Bimbo “Multitud de Compradores” 1955 (that’s my dad’s finger, we were so excited to find this ad since this ad is for the company he works for)

Aqua Velva “Ese hombre tiene un no se que…” 1960′s

Kodak 124 “Es Grato Regalarla” 1960′s

Kellogg’s “Termina Tu Bien Dia” 1972

Brandy Etiqueta Negra “El Brandy de la Pantera” 1970′s  (we really disliked this one, my dad said “I guess with that type of ads it never took off, because I don’t remember this brand)

Levi’s “Aguanta a un Niño” 1960′s (this is one of our favorites)

Orange Crush “Invítame” 1962 (We really like this one!)

Videojuegos, Traga monedas 1980 (reads MAKE A LOT OF MONEY: with video games… I agree)