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    Remember when famous writers used to shill for consumer products?

    Emily Temple
    By 
    August 19, 2020, 1:14pm

    Ah, yes, the good old days: when novelists lent their faces and testimonials to advertisers hoping to sell tires, or a certain kind of beer, or fancy watches. It’s something you don’t see very much anymore, because we writers have become too principled to participate in advertising campaigns. Just kidding: it’s definitely because no one will pay us to do it.

    Below, some of my favorite vintage advertisements featuring authors. (PSA: don’t leave without watching the Mickey Spillane Miller lite tv spots. They’re pure gold.)

    Zane Grey for Goodrich Safety Silvertown tires, 1937 [via]

    Maurice Sendak for Sony Beta video tape, 1981 [via]

    Erskine Caldwell for Lord Calvert Blended Whiskey, 1950 [via]

    Tennessee Williams for WPAT Radio (Paterson, NJ), 1966 [via]

    Erle Stanley Gardner for Bromo-Seltzer, 1939

    Langston Hughes for Smirnoff Vodka, 1959 [via]

    Robert Ludlum for Smirnoff Vodka, 1982

    Ernest Hemingway for Ballantine Ale, 1951

    C.S. Forester for Ballantine Ale, 1952

    John Steinbeck for Ballantine Ale, 1953

    Anita Loos for Ballantine Ale, 1953

    Mickey Spillane for Miller Lite, 1974

    And another, from 1976, because they’re too good.

    Peter Benchley for Rolex, 1976

    Frederick Forsyth for Rolex, 1983

    Mark Twain for Conklin’s Self-Filling Pens, 1903

    …and Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pens, 1904

    …and Remington Typewriters, 1905

    Stephen King for American Express, 1983

    Kurt Vonnegut (and David Bowie and Brian Setzer and Ken Anderson) for . . . coffee, 1983

    Bonus: Ayn Rand for English as the Official Language, because how on brand can you get [via]

    advertising Anita Loos Ayn Rand C. S. Forester Erle Stanley Gardner Ernest Hemingway Frederick Forsyth John Steinbeck Kurt Vonnegut Langston Hughes Mark Twain Maurice Sendak Micky Spillane Peter Benchley Robert Ludlum selling out Stephen King Tennessee Williams Zane Grey

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