Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Ban-It-Yourself Exorcism Products
A funny section in the September 1975 issue of The Monster Times #43, aka the ALL-DEMON ISSUE, entitled Ban-It-Yourself Exorcism Products-- from the headline: Merchants and advertisers have barely yet begun to plumb the enormous commercial possibilities of the Occult. This is puzzling, because the very drives which lead people to turn to the occult-- mainly a deep-rooted horror and revulsion of the Flesh, and a desire to achieve some super-human, ultra-antiseptic "Perfection of Spirit" --are precisely the same drives that keep them buying deodorant soap and air freshener. Certainly the hysterical popularity of THE EXORCIST should've given Madison Avenue a hint, and set them to merchandising products like this.
Man, this is some high-quality satire right here. I rarely think off-brand humor like this rises to the level of Mad, but this stuff would look perfectly natural with Al Jaffee illustrations. Ads We'd Like to See Dept. That Clearasin copy is solid gold. Also, for some reason I feel an urgent desire to watch Dracula A.D. 1972 again real soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd Star Trek Exorcist for that matter.
Those parodies are actually pretty dammed funny! I especially liked Clearasin, too.
ReplyDeleteMAD magazine merged with Topps Wacky Packages!