Judge, 1931-04-04 · page 10 of 36
Judge — April 4, 1931 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Summary for Modern Readers This is a satirical corporate memo exchange from *Judge* magazine mocking 1920s-30s business culture and advertising gimmicks. The company president wants to launch an attention-grabbing prize contest to boost candy bar sales, claiming a competitor's $3 prize caused domestic chaos in his household. The treasurer responds with fiscal reality: the company is nearly broke because salesmen are overspending on restaurant meals for clients. He sarcastically proposes replacing cash prizes with free candy bars as rewards, reasoning that customers who buy the product should eat it anyway—solving both the prize problem and the free-meal problem. The cartoons illustrate the absurdity: a revenue agent wasting ammunition on scarecrows (incompetent management), people standing in a bread line, and people sneaking their own food to restaurants. The satire targets corporate delusion, wasteful spending practices, and the desperate gimmickry of Depression-era marketing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE DANDY HANDY CANDY BARS, Inc. Inter-Office Memo From: J, A. Tishweiler, Pres. To: Executive Board Re: Prize Offer. L2t88y my house has not been a fit place to live in because friend of a cousin of our maid recently won $3 in an advertising contest. Everything at home is going to wrack and ruin while my wife and children and servants puzzle. If other products can do this, why can’t Dandy Handy Candy Bars? I have thoroughly mulled the matter over and think we should all put our heads together and dope out some at- tention commanding prize offer of Dandy Handy Candy Bar tude to stagger the package candy field. “As I look at it, prize offers pull sales resistance up by the roots. Jump into this problem with both feet and I'm sure if you use your way. heads we can come through with a real two-fisted idea that'll knock consumer apathy stiff and leave it limp. J. A. Tishweiler. Revenve Acent—There I go, wasting ammunition on that dang scarecrow! Danvoy Hanpy Canny Bans, Inc. Inter-Office Memo. From: D. Loth, To: J. A. Tishweiler, Pres. ip you plan to use money for prizes on this prize contest you have mem- oed us about, because if you did Iam writing to ask you where the money is. As treasurer I feel duty bound to tell you that unless some more money comes into the business pretty soon there will not be enough to cover petty cash. The salesmen are spending too much money on the road for ente taking prospects to restaurants and places like that. Now I salesmen must feed customers, but, as Mrs. Loth pointed out, “Aw, ain't you gonna tuck us in!” why do they have to take them to restau- rants when we have Dandy Handy Candy Bars as a meal in themselves? Surely if a man_ buys Dandy Handy Candy Bars he must eat them. But I think the prize idea is a good one, and so I suggest th of giving money prizes we Handy Candy Bars: the first prize as people pass their winnings around. Yours for “What's that you have there?” putting Dandy Handy Candy Bars on “I brought my own jam.” the tip of every tongue, D. Loth. comicbooks.com