Judge, 1925-09-19 · page 9 of 36
Judge — September 19, 1925 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Blindfold Test" Satire Explained This page satirizes a popular 1920s advertising gimmick where blindfolded consumers supposedly identified products by sensory perception alone. Judge mocks the absurdity of these demonstrations through a series of humorous scenarios. The satire exposes how such "tests" were rigged or meaningless: a man guesses a Ford because of confirmation bias; executives given poor fountain pens produce terrible handwriting regardless; movie-goers know the plot from neighbors talking loudly; a man can't identify a cigar's make; someone confuses a shirt for a towel while bathing. The humor targets both advertisers' false claims about product superiority and consumers' gullibility in believing blindfold tests proved anything. It's social commentary on 1920s consumer culture and advertising deception—showing that subjective judgment and external factors (gossip, poor products, simple mistakes) matter far more than advertised claims about distinguishing quality blindly.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
This is the grave of a cute little girl Who had a cute little figure, a cute little curl, a cute little foot, a cute little way— A cute indigestion took her away whet ste pays 510" C05 Ore pr thigh The Blindfold Test Now Popular with Advertisers T= men are led blindfolded into an auto and given a ride. Nine of them guess it isa Ford. The other one is a former resident of Santa Barbara and thinks he is in another earthquake. Somebody ties a handkerchief over a man’s eyes and gives him a drink of hooch. The handkerchief is then removed and the victim isn’t even aware of the fact. A bowl of uncooked breakfast food is placed before an epicure. He is asked to sample it and tell what he thinks it is. He gets a splinter in his tongue before he can answer. Eight blindfolded business execu- tives are given fountain pens and told to write with them. Their penmanship is terrible. Several persons sit through a movie performance with their eyes closed. They all know what the picture is about because their neighbors refuse to sit through the performance with their mouths closed. A man smokes a cigar blindfolded just to find out if he can tell the make by the aroma. His wife bawls him out for not getting the ashes in the ash tray. A gentleman, taking a bath, gets soap in hiseyes. He picks up a towel and finds out later it’s a shirt. R.C. OB. KRAZY KRACKS “give a sentence with the w , “3 Rotary” i A 3 % ge U “The doctors e . informed that the x patient was on the rotary covery.” R. P. E. writes that the expression “Catzy” is also used in Chicago but in an entirely different way. He says out thar it means anything that makes a brave show but won’t stand ‘inspection, and he also adds that it is spelled ‘“Katzy.” take your cherce! on Speaking of expressions—“So’s Your Old Man” has degenerated into “So’s Your Aunt Somebody.” This bringing the rest of the family in gives the “Quick Wit” an oppor- tunity to pick out any name he likes. To date, Aunt Emma seems the most popular. —p— W. H. E. sends in a strenuous kick on the Six Best Steppers. “I watch for your Six Best Steppers, every week but it’s almost impossible to buy these pieces if we don’t know what show they are from.” All right, W. H. E., we strive to please. pa The Six Best “Steppers”: “Manhattan”—(Garrick Gaieties) “April Fool’”—(Garrick Gaieties) “Sentimental Me”—(Garrick Gaie- ties). “All I Want Is Love”’—(June Days). “What a World This Would Be”— (Scandals). 5 “I Miss My Swiss’—(No show that we know of). So you can Apvertisinc REPRESENTATIVE To Actress—Well, if you will give us permission to use your picture I'll set a man on writing up your wonderful acting, pretty face, beautiful skin, charming manners and all the old bunk! Gry comicbooks.com