Monday, February 22, 2010

Manic Monday--A Reason To Sell Salve

We're all used to those wonderful comic book ads from days of yore, when companies routinely circumvented child labor laws by getting children to go door to door hawking their products for them, in exchange for some cool-looking-but-doubtlessly-chintzy "prizes."

None, however, gave us as important a justification for giving up summer days to sell salve as Cloverine did:

In close up:





I'm not sure what's more noteworthy here:

*The surprise symbols over the gorilla's head
*The beads of worry sweat from the gorilla (because he obviously is deeply afraid of these rugrats)
*The fact that Judy and Jim went to the zoo armed (or were they just on patrol nearby? Maybe this is Star City or something)
*The fact that the adults are grateful that these kids came to the zoo armed, and congratulating them
*That the zookeepers apparently have no means whatsoever of pacifying escaped animals, relying on the kindness of wandering armed children to bail them out from many lawsuits
*Why does Judy get the bow and Jim get the gun?
*What if evil children sold the salve, and got weaponry? Not every kid would be as civic-minded as Judy and Jim...

Still, despite the many questions, there's no arguing the premise: sell Cloverine White Salve, because someday you might have to take down a raging jungle beast in the heart of your town.

And, yes, you can still get Cloverine White Salve today, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, you don't have to wait for some kids to come around and pound on your door.

This ad appeared in Scotland Yard #3 (1955)


2 comments:

ShadowWing Tronix said...

You may want to fix the second to last paragraph, unless your actually promoting the white slave trade. :)

Anonymous said...

Please Note they also give away a LIVE PONY!
Think of the shipping charges for that beast.