THOU SHALT NOT SHOP ELSEWHERE (Summer of 1925)

  You can sum up the display ads in the July 1925 Press Democrat as good, bad, and… WTF. Should you have any interest whatsoever in the evolution of commercial art this midpoint of the 1920s is like a history book. There were ads that could have been throwbacks to an earlier decade alongside stylish modernist layouts. Advertisers framed illustrations to look more like a camera shot you might see in a movie instead of showing an image of the product.

The month began with an unusual marketing tie-in to a blockbuster showing at the Cline Theatre: Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” It was a double-page spread that featured the movie ad surrounded by local businesses floundering efforts to associate themselves with the Biblical theme. Corrick’s ad encouraged customers to “Read The Book,” which presumably was a novelization of the movie and not the Bible. Another ad was headlined, “THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT – SAVE MONEY AT THE ARMY AND NAVY STORE”.

The winner (loser?) for most tasteless ad was the D Street Garage, which urged Santa Rosa to “Go and see the Ten Commandants” [sic] and continued thus: “One of the big scenes that you will be interested in is where Pharaoh and his hosts pursue Moses and the Children of Israel. You will also rejoice that Moses escapes. But suppose Pharaoh and his legions had used Velie Motor Cars instead of Chariots, they would have caught Moses in half an hour, if it had been God’s will. Let our salesmen demonstrate to you the Velie – the most wonderful modern Chariot.”

Leeching off the film’s publicity was hardly unique to the pages of the PD; pretty much everybody was trying to get in on Moses Movie Mania. The State Board of Health commandments came up with ten commandments that included “play some adult athletic game three times each week” and “sleep with windows open eight hours daily.” The American Railway Association had a commandments list for safely driving across railroad tracks with number five being, “Thou shalt not kill the passengers within thy care.” Personally, I think that one should have ranked higher.

Later in the month there was a different sort of ad campaign that began by only announcing that something was coming (see the first ad below). Was a circus coming to town? A high profile vaudeville act? Another big movie? The graphics were eye-catching and the premise was clever.

It was finally revealed to be about a sale at The White House department store and the actual ad was too clever by half. In a strained metaphor, the “price crasher’s bargain circus” promised “A Marvelous, Momentous, Mammoth, Master-Stroke in Merchandising – a Circus for the entire Community presenting a mastodon movement of amazing, immeasureable money-saving.” Believe it or not, the thing gets even worse from there. You can read a transcript below, but I’d urge a stiff drink or other brain-numbing substance first.

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