advertising

Mysterious Giant-Food Thefts Continue

An eight-foot-tall fiberglass doughnut was stolen from a billboard in the 2200 block of Baleson Avenue sometime Thursday night, the fifth such large representation of a foodstuff stolen over the past month. The doughnut, decorated with foot-long multi-colored fiberglass sprinkles, was part of an advertisement for Do-Or-Do-Nut, a Star Wars-themed drive-through doughnut stand.
Lt. Arnold Corrigan,… »

What A Character! – Fatty Turkey

A recurring series in which we take a look back at the city’s most familiar advertising icons.
From the annals of spokesfigures whose time had come and gone before they’d even arrived, there’s Fatty Turkey, the eponymous mascot of Fatty Turkey Brand Whole Frozen Turkeys. A subsidiary spawned from McLaren Preservatives, the Fatty Turkey Brand was… »

Friday Facts: “Bleeping Kids, Bleeping Bleep Ducks”

:: Number of times that there have been cited (by the FCC) instances of accidental profanity on local newscasts- 31
:: Number of these which have resulted in the firing of a local anchor/reporter- 1 (Arthur Stevens, in what has come to be known as the “4-H Incident,” 1983)
:: Advertising on public transit, by type- 45%… »

What a Character! – The Richmond Spectacles Rich Man

A recurring series in which we take a look back at the city’s most familiar advertising icons.
The jaunty figure of the Richmond Spectacles Rich Man still steps lively over Pearl Street, striding across the rooftops of the Deputy Tyrone Campbell Building just south of Deputy Tyrone Campbell Blvd, as he has for sixty years this… »

What a Character!- What’s Ailing Sol?

A recurring series in which we take a look back at the city’s most familiar advertising icons.
We’ve got a patient here with a very long medical history! Let’s see- He’s got chills, fever, aches and pains? Why, someone’s got the flu!
How about; Coughing, sneezing, and breaking out in irregular, red specks? Obviously, it’s chickenpox!
And then… »

What a Character!: Monsieur LeSteak

A recurring series in which we take a look back at the city’s most familiar advertising icons.
Remember Charlie the Tuna, the seemingly suicidal spokes-fish for canned fish titan Starkist? Of course you do, who could forget his apparently misguided yet earnest attempts to qualify for a life (or the end thereof) inside a small, tin… »

What a Character!: The Spaghetti Giant

A recurring series in which we take a look back at the city’s most familiar advertising icons.
What stands twenty-five feet tall, wears a toga with a garland of grape leaves and was a fixture of the city’s “Restaurant Row” for thirty-five years? If you said “The Spaghetti Giant,” then are you ever correct!
Between 1949… »

What a Character!: Sour Grapes Magee

A new recurring series in which we take a look back at the city’s most familiar advertising icons.

“Aw … PHOOEY!” The Silent Life of
Sour Grapes Magee
Long-time residents of the city may recall that the dour-faced figure painted on the side of the Lowell Furniture Warehouse – just east of Southwest South Street, by exit 588… »

Friday Facts: Dives, Ambulation, “Also-Ran Arthur”

:: Munson’s Drugs on the corner of 33rd and Arlington has been in a long-standing dispute with the city concerning signage used each March and 2007 looks to be no exception. The Munson’s March Madness event advertising features a cartoon of Charles Manson standing atop a stack of dead and mutilated bodies, declaring “You’d… »