Judge, 1928-09-08 · page 19 of 36
Judge — September 8, 1928 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This article satirizes the proliferation of advertising enclosed with monthly bills—a practice the author calls "insidious propaganda." The main complaint: companies like electric utilities, telephone, plumber, florist, and others exploit the monthly statement to insert unsolicited sales pitches alongside bills, creating literal waste baskets of junk mail. The humor lies in the cumulative absurdity: each service provider tries to upsell customers on unrelated products (vacuum cleaners, furnaces, farm equipment, narcotics). The author even jokes that a future baby's physician bill will include advertising. The cartoons illustrate this overreach. The bottom cartoon shows a woman at a beach covered by what appears to be advertising material, claiming she's "covering up" due to "all this talk about immodesty"—implying advertising clogs are more invasive than swimwear concerns. This critiques early-20th-century marketing's aggressive expansion into private correspondence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE The First of the Month Literary Guild There are many advantages, 1 adinit, in having charge accounts with various companies, despite the first of the month strain on the bank account, I used to think this was the only unsettling feature of ha accounts but I'm ra changing my mind as ¢ charg je coneern after another has taken up the vogue of enclosing insidious ad- literature with their statements. We no longer merely get billy at the end. of each month—-we get cnough auxiliary vertising literature to fill a couple waste baskets or compile a mail order catalogue. First the cleetrie light com- pany got us to try out vacuum cleaners electric ice-boxes. at nd the milk company persuaded us to take four different kinds of milk, including the Scandinavian, Then the telephone compa us to install three extensions Now the plumber's bills sug- gest we put in a new furnace and the florist’s bill urges us to send flowers every day. The telegraph bill says we should telegraph in- stead ¢ bill more on eatin ing and clothes. The influence of this sort of propaganda is appall- nd its end is difficult to cal- Soon the lawn man will be urging us to buy a farm for him to run, the druggist’s bill will advise us to use narcotics and the will contain health thorities on cating three kinds of meat for breakfast every eating, and the grocer’s that we nd less on hous- demands spend cumulative butcher's statement recommendations of morn- ing. Iam the proud father of a strong and sturdy baby bey who ve six weeks old next Mon- day evening at nine o'clock. I'm willing to pay a nice price for this splendid offspring, but my will wife and I are flinching already at the prop: that we fully expect to find enclosed with the physician's bill. né —Ricuarp S. Warrace “What's the idea, Elaine?” “Just covering up a little, about immodesty.” I'm getting tired of all this talk