Awesomely bad magazine adverts

[Station]

Never knew how saturated American media was with crappy adverts. 75% of a magazine is advertisements - mainly Marlboro, Japanese import cars and the majority being this lot:

 

Build your own digger with the minimal of skill and tools? Awesome! I can see this working in the harsh environment of a building site though.

 

 

Not sure what this is? Also, what is a 'semi kit'? Sounds like the parts it come in a very small box:

 

 

Repair car body (and actually BECOME a professional body repairer) with a $15 booklet. In 7 days.

 

 

Make 130 cars!

 

 

"* Your car will not look anything like this":

 

 

Didn't know this little trick went as far back as the early 80's. "Does anywon no if dis works?"

 

 

Bit more dubious now. Build your own hulking behemoth of a mobile home. Look at the size of that thing ...

 

 

Best of the lot. I even bet the resulting creation is a million miles from the vehicle in the drawing. Note there are no actual photos of completed projects in these ads.

 

 

"Are you idiot? Well build this and decapitate yourself on the MDF propellor and momentarily watch your twitching body plummet to the ground as it disintegrates on take off*!" (* Plane* may not actually take off) (*Project documents may not actually resemble plane*)(* Documents do not include any building plans)

 

[bigstraight6]

Kwality! these remind me of the spoof adverts in the Viz comic

[Station]

Apparently, Laser kit cars did other cars as well:

 

 

The Laser 917 - OOF!

 

[eddyramrod]

OK, who remembers a cop show called Hardcastle And McCormick? Brian Keith was retired judge Hardcastle, and some unknown was discredited race driver "Skid" Mark McCormick, busting crime in exactly this! It was even red...

[warren t claim]

OK, who remembers a cop show called Hardcastle And McCormick? Brian Keith was retired judge Hardcastle, and some unknown was discredited race driver "Skid" Mark McCormick, busting crime in exactly this! It was even red...

 

Sunday night TV IIRC.

[Station]

Oh yeah!

 

 

Is it the same though?

[ashmicro]

Quality! I remember some kind of "build your own helicopter kit" being advertised in car mags in the 1980s. Something about microlights too, if memory serves.

[Tayne]

.

[Richard]

OK, who remembers a cop show called Hardcastle And McCormick?

 

I do, but just the title. Was it on during the Winter of Discontent? I remember watching something like that when the power went off, which I believe was because somebody was criticising the unions on another channel.

 

We got similar adverts in the UK, which is where Viz got the idea for their spoof adverts.

[eddyramrod]

Which Winter Of Discontent? 1973? 1984? I don't remember power cuts in 84 (perhaps we were lucky where I was) but that would be about the right period. And yes, it's possible I remembered the car wrongly, but the Elite did resemble the Coyote. Or vice-versa.

[Richard]

1978 was the one I was thinking of, now you mention it there have been a few.

[Negative Creep]

Do you have any larger versions?

 

 

I can't make out what's included in this

[pompei]

They are brilliant ads Where did you find them?

[Station]

They're from Google Books. They scanned in (probably) every Popular Mechanic magazine. They're pretty good mags from that era as well. Recommend viewing from the 80's and earlier.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks% ... arch+Books

[Madman Of The People]

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Cheers,

Madman of the People

[michiel]

They're from Google Books. They scanned in (probably) every Popular Mechanic magazine. They're pretty good mags from that era as well. Recommend viewing from the 80's and earlier.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks% ... arch+Books

 

Fantastical!

[garethj]

That Lazer 917GT was the bad guy's car in Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo

 

The car in Harcastle & McCormick was different, in fact it was 2 different cars for the early and late series. Originally it was VW based with a VW 412 (or Porsche 914) engine, later series had a car that was based on a Delorean

 

 

It's as if Tom Selleck were to chop in the 308 after Series 1 to drive around in an MR2 based kit for Series 2

[eddyramrod]

Wow, thanks Gareth!

[seth]

They're from Google Books. They scanned in (probably) every Popular Mechanic magazine. They're pretty good mags from that era as well. Recommend viewing from the 80's and earlier.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks% ... arch+Books

 

Wow! What a resource for seeing future* technology!

[Richard]

I remember seeing an advert in a UK magazine for replacement dashboards that were described as "bird-pulling".

[maxpower]

I remember seeing an advert in a UK magazine for replacement dashboards that were described as "bird-pulling".

 

yeah if you went fast enough the birds got pulled in behind the dashboard via the front grille

[fordpoplier]

These are from a 1958 copy of 'Mechanix Illustrated'. Hello Mimi!

[Justin Case]

 

A historic photo indeed; the last one ever taken of Mimi with toes

[Gompo]

Nice work Station.

 

Going back to page 1, I'll take the Mini 18 please.

 

[Negative Creep]

What on earth is that mutant Scimitar thing behind it, with what appears to be wood panelling?

[Gompo]

Not sure what it is exactly, the shape (particularly the back) reminds me of either a South American or Spanish jeep/kit car thing with a weird name possibly beginning with 'G'. Probably not one though.

[barrett]

It's a Brubaker Box, obviously!

[chaseracer]

It's a Brubaker Box, obviously!

Of course!