In color

Read carefully the copy in this ad from 1960 and ask yourself: "Who'd be so thick to order one of these?"

The ad talks about a screen that fits over you current black-and-white TV screen, and produces "...brilliant, eye-filling colors..."

And your friends will like it too - they'll get to make jokes about you and your "color TV".

"Thrilling color", 1960
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Electric health

"Electric Health", 1924
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A bigger version of the "Violet Ray machine", the "Elco Health Generator" has the added benefits of ozone generation and "mechanical vibration".

It claims to be useful to cure conditions so severe as "Deafness", "Pain" and "Obesity" - now, how it works to help restore hearing or to help lose weight, is not explained in the ad and the reader has to get the free booklet to find out more about this miraculous machine.

Play the Xylorimba

That's right - the "Deagan Xylorimba" is possibly the easiest musical instrument to learn. Ever. And it's also loads of fun within your reach!

"Xylorimba", 1931
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No teacher necessary -you can teach yourself, even if you can't read a single note of sheet music. And the ad even says that you can make lots of money playing at dances and weddings - sixty dollars a week was six times the average weekly wage - a really big incentive in the midst of the Great Depression.

But unfortunately, this ad has all the trademarks of a scam.

X-Ray vision

Two ads for similar "inventions", in the same science magazine of 1965. Is the market for these things that big?

"Amazing X-Ray", 1965

The line art of the ads says a lot about the business and marketing ideals of the companies that sell them - the one above is a bit of an amusement, whilst the one below has got an ominous, perverted tone to it.

"X-Ray Specs", 1965

Come fly with me

Even in an era so careless and happy as The Roaring Twenties, you can't possible become an "Expert Aircraft Engineer" in a few months, studying from the comfort of your own house?

"Learn Aviation", 1925
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But the closing paragraph about "write for special offer on free airplane parts" has the nasty smell of a scam.

Space artist needed

Another one selling "the knowledge" to get a plum job in the "High Pay Missile Industry". Drawing rockets and missiles, and other technical things.

The line art is just fantastic- legit pulp space madness. Think of The Jetsons. Guaranteed to get someone to send some money.

"Space artist", 1962
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For the entry price to get your booklet of secrets ($2 in 1962) you could buy six issues of the science magazine it was published in. Being a space-age artist is not cheap.

Operator number 38

This is one hard little devil of a mad ad. Have a look.

"Follow this man", 1931
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What does it actually sell?

Not a life of glamour as a James Bond apprentice in the 1930's. Not at all. That's what the weasel words in the ad make you believe.

It sells a "finger print operator methodology" or some other similar learn-by-mail scam. You pay for the informative report and then it's all downhill payments from there.

Press here for mystery

There's an old popular saying about "...a fool and his money..." - these two ads in the same publication illustrate the point in question: they are variations on the long running scam of selling worthless junk by promoting the curiosity of the reader.

Exhibit number one: the "Amazing Mystery Button", which the ad bills as the most interesting electrical apparatus ever discovered. For one dollar.  Not only you can build a telephone and an amplifier but also a ... Detectiphone (?). Whatever that is.

"Amazing mystery button", 1945
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Exhibit number two: the "Wonder Electric Button", which the ad *also* sells as the most interesting electrical apparatus ever discovered. The rest of this ad is almost identical to the one above -including the use of the word Detectiphone.

Talk about copyright infringement. Or the same scammer running two different ads.

"Wonder electric button", 1945
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