Judge, 1923-11-17 · page 15 of 44
Judge — November 17, 1923 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from Judge satirizes **advertising's pervasive intrusion into American culture** during the early 20th century (likely 1920s). **The Main Satire:** The top cartoon mocks Cleopatra's era being rewritten as an advertisement—even ancient history now features product placements ("snake bite remedy"). **"Ad Maximus"** section parodies famous sayings by replacing key words with brand names (Socony gasoline, B.V.D. underwear, Palmolive soap, Willys Knight cars, Victrola phonographs). This exposes how advertising language has colonized everyday speech. **"The National Anthem"** is the page's centerpiece: a patriotic song rewritten to celebrate not America's ideals but its **consumer goods**. References to billboards, electric signs, and brands (Pear's Soap, Spearmint Gum, Mentholatum) replacing natural landscape and patriotic values. The final stanza's lament—"Land that our fathers knew... They haven't done a thing to you! Lord, how you've changed!"—expresses nostalgic anxiety about commercialism eroding traditional American values. The satire targets the advertising industry's aggressive expansion into every aspect of culture and speech.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The joke Way may” scem Q sharper, but the credit belongs to PALMOLIVE. Ad Maximus ROLLING tacks. Firestone gathers no + * It's a long road that has no Socony sign. All is not Gold Medal that flours. * ok * To B.V.D. or not to B.V.D.! The Ham is not always to the Swift. * * # Pall Malls well that end well. * + * Time and Tydol wait for no man, Where there's a Willsnap there's away. * # + There's many a slip twixt the Kuppenheimer and the lip. Tn the spring a Young hat’s fancy. * # & To the Victrola belongs the spoils, + * # A pipe may be Dunhill but it’s never out. aad “What did you like best in the Post last w “That Willys Knight ad.” Clothes by Kurrentirimer, “O Cleopatra, yon bootlegger sip his new snake bite remedy.” wouldst have you “Jack was kind of a blockhead in col- lege. What's he doing 1 “Posing for collar ads! soe “What do you mean by negative ad- vertising?” “Yes, we have no bananas!” Rana SI —what an odd name for a girl.” “Yes, she’s 100 per cent pure!” Proud Father—And he may be a bootlegger some day! 9 The National Adthem nk. Country, ‘tis of thee, M Sweet Land of Ad copy, Of thee T sing! Land where the billboards rise Straight up into the sh From every mountain side We see them swing! My native count Pear's Soap—Use Socony! Thy ads T love. Ads for all pains and ills, Bell-Ans and Liver Pills, My heart with rupture thrills, TIeaven’s above! Let ad planes ride the breeze, Murads and B.V. D. Chew Spearmint Gum! Electric signs finme out, Thin pills for people stout, Buy this, buy that, they shout— Mentholatum! Hemmed in on every side, Wildroot and Herpicide! Neatly arranged. Land that our fathers knew, Land where great trees once They haven't done a thing to 3 Lord, how you've changed!