Giant Tiger Halloween Ad – Oct. 24, 1968

Here's another one of those discount store Halloween ads that I seem to dig up every year. This ad for Giant Tiger appeared in the Journal on October 24, 1968 – 45 years ago today. As usual, Kellogg's Tony the Tiger has been curiously appropriated for a Giant Tiger ad!

The costumes depicted in the ad are pretty generic – a monster (with the word 'monster' written across his groin in case you weren't sure), a devil, a girl with a pagoda on her head, a senorita, a skeleton wearing a jaunty cap, a witch (I think it's a witch because it's holding a broom), a girl with some kind of weird wig, and a creepy clown.

The two largest costumes shown in the ad are a skeleton playing a clarinet and the Esso Tiger (star of the popular "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" ads).

Actually, it's fairly ironic that the Esso (later Exxon) Tiger appears in the ad with Tony the Tiger. In the late 1990s, Exxon was using their tiger to sell food at Tiger Mart convenient stores. Kelloggs sued them, claiming that the Exxon Tiger infringed on the Tony the Tiger trademark. Apparently the case went all the way to the Supreme Court before a settlement was reached.

I think Kellogg's should have sued Giant Tiger instead.

Anyway, your child can "put a tiger in his tank" on Halloween and go as the Esso Tiger – because that costume is on Ebay right now! But hurry – Halloween is next week!