Ads from the 1930s
540 ads and videos in the library ran between 1930 and 1939.
Most common in these ads
Goals
- Build the brand 187 ads and videos
- Sell now 183 ads and videos
- Get an enquiry or a sign-up 59 ads and videos
Industries
- Health and medicine 127 ads and videos
- Media and entertainment 92 ads and videos
- Beauty and personal care 64 ads and videos
Emotions
- Hope 62 ads and videos
- Excitement 46 ads and videos
- Desire 45 ads and videos
Patterns
- Problem-agitate-solve 46 ads and videos
- If-then promise 34 ads and videos
- Borrowed medical authority 34 ads and videos
The ads
Unshudat al-Fuad film ad, al-Kawakib 1932
A great national Egyptian film that is musical, sung and spoken, made by names the reader already respects: Khalil Mutran's verses, Zakariyya Ahmad's songs, George Abyad on screen.
Gillette razor blades ad with Jack Dempsey, Modern Mechanix, 1938
Jack Dempsey, with a beard that's a terror and a face on show every night, won't experiment with blades, so the reader shouldn't gamble his face on cheap ones either.
Amr ibn al-As printed play ad, al-Kawakib 1932
A printed play about Amr ibn al-As is sold as an immortal page of Arab glory and Egyptian unity, so the buyer takes home national pride along with the text.
Beethoven series concert poster
Beethoven's own brooding face sells a whole season: his symphonies, concerti and overtures on alternate Sunday evenings, from 25 cents a seat.
Ahmed Halawa silk stockings ad, al-Kawakib 1932
The stocking is so sheer a hand shows through it, and six short bars carry the rest of the case: new, pure silk, pretty colours, low prices, at Ahmed Halawa.
Elmhurst Flag Day poster, Du Page County centennial, 1939
The flag itself sells Flag Day: its stripes fanned into speed lines on a corner-to-corner staff, with town, date and county centennial as the only words.
Atwater Kent radio ad, al-Kawakib 1932
The most complete radio 16 pounds can buy, backed by four numbered technical reasons that a first-time radio buyer can check one by one.
"Noah, a Human Comedy" WPA poster, 1936
The flood story played for laughs: a white-bearded Noah rowing an ark crammed with a giraffe, zebra, elephant and donkey tells the audience this is A Human Comedy.
Kull Shay magazine special issue ad, al-Kawakib 1933
A column of unanswered why questions, from faith and marriage to the British in Egypt and the tarboosh, all answered in one place: the Kull Shay special issue.
Sinclair Lewis It Can't Happen Here theatre poster, 1936
The comforting phrase It Can't Happen Here sits over a bayonet-armed soldier, a map of America and the year 19??, so the picture contradicts the title.
Lux toilet soap ad, al-Kawakib 1933
Studio lights demand supple, flawless skin from film actresses, and Lux is the soap they use to meet that standard.
Swing Parade musical poster, 1937
The last-week deadline is the headline and a swinging couple shows what will be missed, so the card sells a closing date more than a show title.
Madinat Ramses theatre and cinema programme ad, al-Kawakib 1933
One Zamalek venue gives you Youssef Wahbi's new stage tragedy and a Greta Garbo film the same week, with the faces you know on the bill.
Gillette A Frank Confession ad, The New York Times, 1932
Gillette admits in public that some of its new blades fell short, explains the fix it bought and installed, and asks to be judged on today's blades.
Genel lipstick ad, al-Kawakib 1933
To be beautiful and admired, lips must hold an eye-catching colour that stays in summer and winter, and Genel, made in Alexandria, is the perfect red.
United States Travel Bureau See America Montana poster, 1938
Montana is one flat picture of peak, lake, pines, tipis and rock drawings that reads at a glance, and the poster greets the traveller with a direct welcome.
Khafaya al-Qahira play ad, al-Kawakib 1933
Youssef Wahbi and Amina Rizk, shown in two round portraits, lead a new revue billed as a kind never before seen on the Egyptian stage.
Don't Jay Walk road safety poster, 1937
Jaywalking is no small slip: the poster freezes the instant a car throws a man forward, hat flying, while a policeman and the driver look on in alarm.
Mohamed Fayek al-Gohary physical culture institute ad, al-Kawakib 1933
On the summer beach, undressed, people either admire your body or hide their laughter; a free book shows how to build the body that earns respect.
WPA poster: Nurse the baby, your protection against trouble, ca. 1937
Breastfeeding is presented not as a duty to the child but as the mother's own protection against trouble, with the trouble left for her to name.
Ramses City summer theatre programme ad, al-Kawakib 1933
The last two nights of Yusuf Wahbi's revue Khafaya al-Qahira, on 5 and 6 August at 8, sold by the faces of Wahbi and Amina Rizk.
WPA See America poster: Welcome to Montana, ca. 1937
Montana is sold as the frontier picture made real: a snow peak, a dark forest and a camp of tipis with one rider at full gallop.
Genel lipstick ad, al-Kawakib 1933
A pharaonic queen sits beside the Genel lipstick, so a red made in Alexandria borrows the oldest image of Egyptian beauty.
Consumer Reports first issue ad in New Masses, 1936
A new membership group answers the shopping questions nobody selling the goods will answer, rating products by brand name, and its first issue is already out.
International Correspondence Schools courses ad, al-Kawakib 1933
Every career either climbs or slides with age, and the training you take now by post decides which curve your salary follows.
Sanka decaffeinated coffee ad, 1932
Stop swearing off coffee at night and switch instead: Sanka is real coffee with 97% of the caffein removed, so the evening cup no longer costs a night's sleep.
Ramses Summer Theatre weekly programme ad, al-Kawakib 1933
A week of plays laid out night by night with the hour, led by Youssef Wahbi and Amina Rizk, with a new play promised very soon.
A whiskey bottle and a gas pump stand side by side under a looming skull, so drinking plus driving reads as one deadly sum.
Ramses Summer Theatre programme ad, al-Kawakib 1933
Two last nights of the classic 'Secrets of Cairo', then a new Egyptian comedy from Monday, both led by Youssef Wahbi and Amina Rizk, whose faces frame the notice.
A jaywalker is caught mid-stumble in front of a car's grille, hat flying and a policeman shouting, so the near miss itself delivers the warning.
International Correspondence Schools courses ad, al-Kawakib 1933
Success comes from spare-time study, and the International Correspondence Schools, approved by industry, science and government, bring expert lessons wherever the post reaches.
WPA "Live here at low rent" housing poster, ca. 1938
Low-rent public housing sold as a lakeside life: a couple on a modern balcony pointing out at the water, with the street address to come and see it.
International Correspondence Schools home-study courses ad, al-Kawakib 1933
The more you learn, the more you earn: students write that ICS lessons by post doubled their pay, and employers keep ICS-trained staff.
Crisco vegetable shortening ad, Good Housekeeping, 1932
Husbands order French fried potatoes when they eat out, so serve them at home: Crisco answers the three fears that stopped wives from deep-frying.
Ahmed Halawa silk neckties ad, al-Kawakib 1933
Let the ties sell themselves: five pure silk patterns fanned out large, worn by two smart men, at prices no rival can match.
Beecham-Veno book of useful information, 1931
A yearbook of the modern world for 1931: radio, talkies, air records and a wireless set to build, with every calendar month headed Beecham-Veno.
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