Perusing through the old, big, thick magazine with its little pieces of yellowed crumbling bits falling to the floor, I came across pages with interesting ads. As you read them, try to guess about how many years ago such ads appeared.

An ad displays several different console and table model televisions. “The Philco High Fidelity Television.” It comes with screens from 17” to 27”. But RCA Victor Televisions tries to entice buyers with exciting Rotomatic Tuning dials: “… every station is pre-tuned on target…’locks into place at one CLICK on the dial.’ “ The action is on the screen; you take it easy!” Consoles cost from $300 to $500, while table sets, at $190 for 17” and $240 for 21” models. (Who would guess then that we’d have the size screens available to us now!)

Another colorful page has a well-dressed woman standing by her cook stove. The wording goes something like this: The new automatic electric GE Speed Cooking Range “oven is so big it bakes 4 pies, 11 ½ pound ham…sweet potatoes for 24…all at once!” For $269.95. (It makes the cook feel like she can achieve more than she ever has with this “oversell.”)

Even for a little item, this ad really tries making it as important as the others. To prove Texcel Celophane Tape has better “stickum” as others, an envelope with $1,000 was taped to the fuselage of a big DC-6 American Airlines and flown 724 miles from Chicago to New York—even in bad weather—and arrived with the envelope intact. The tape didn’t even pull up at the edges! (I’m thinking…I wonder if tape is tested these days in any way close to that one!)

I like this one (some what) when the husband gets the “Ah, Ha! moment!” The colorful page shows a fashionably dressed woman wearing a yellow shawl with a bright turquoise suit and little hat with black heels and purse. She’s standing by a new red sedan with a black top and shiny chrome wheel covers. Under that city scene is the statement by a businessman in a light blue suit and gray hat , saying, with an “Ain’t I something?” expression with raised eyebrows and a smirky smile: “This my wife would never understand.” Under that statement, he explains:

“Well, it was like this. I was the sort who knew his own mind, knew what I wanted. Didn’t ask advice often, particularly at home. Seeing that beauty on the street was what woke me up to what I’d been missing. Here I’d been buying the same old kind of car, year after year, never asking the little woman what SHE wanted. Man, that Aero Willys made me realize that something’s happened in the automobile business. When I saw that car and realized how beautiful it was…how it was made by Willys Motors who made the ‘Jeep’ famous…I determined to buy an Aero Willys for my wife. It wasn’t even her birthday, (and I don’t think it was an anniversary of any kind) that’s why she can’t understand it. But is she happy with her new AERO WILLYS.”

At the bottom in smaller wording is : “TO UNDERSTANDING HUSBANDS: Escort your wife to a Willys showroom today. We’ll do the rest.”

Even though so many things change through the years, according to this magazine, men’s business attire has changed little. Thom McAn dress shoes are designed the same, and pages of businessmen in distinguished suits have still very similar designs after all these years.

But, one is actually hard to believe: “No pussy-footing with medical claims: For a TREAT instead of a TREATMENT, smoke Old Golds.” At the bottom of the colorful page, in which has a cute kitten playing with a long, yellow tape measure, is this statement: We’re tobacco Men…not medicine men—Old Golds cures just one thing: The world’s best tobacco. And now you can enjoy the same famous Old Gold blends in both Regular and King size.”

And finally, “Buy Fun for the Kids” heads another product. A picture shows a man in the background watching a young boy raking leaves. It says, “They’ll come running to rake your leaves when you reward them with Dubble Bubble Gum. Ideal, too, as treats at parties and picnics. Buy the “take-home” packages.” (Today, it would take a whole lot more than a piece of gum to get a kid to rake a yard!)

Many of the 216 pages contained in this 1953 LIFE magazine shows ads for liquor or tobacco products. Bus lines and railroad travel ads are popular, too, as well as makeup, antifreeze, carpeting, bras, motor oil, etc. Successful marketing skills used in most ads require eye-catching, clever wordplay, and persuasive sales pitches that stroke many an ego for an easier, beautiful, supposedly healthy, satisfying lifestyle. Money “talks.” That never changes.

As a last thought on ads, the United Presbyterian’s “Litany for Holy Communion” in 1968 states: “Forgive us on frantic buying and selling; for advertising the unnecessary and coveting the extravagant and calling it good business…when it is not good for you.”

Note to teachers: A good class fun exercise would be to have students write a paragraph to sell something. Use descriptive and persuasive words. Go for some wordplay. (Ask them to research this term, if needed, to give them ideas.) Pictures or illustrations could be used. Pretend it will be published in the newspaper or a magazine. Encourage them to share with the class, in person or virtually. See what happens!