St. Patrick’s Day Ads – 1971

It's St. Patrick’s Day! And to celebrate, here are a pair of local ads with that theme from the pages of the Journal in March 1971 – fifty years ago.

First up is an ad for Lorain Creamery that ran in the Journal on March 9, 1971.

Just like McDonald’s promotes its Shamrock Shake around St. Pat’s Day, the Creamery was similarly pushing its Green Mint Chip Ice Cream. (I’m not a fan of mint-flavored anything, although toothpaste is okay.)

The leprechaun illustration is nice, but he still looks vaguely gorilla-like (continuing that ‘Irishmen as Apes’ legacy, which I first wrote about back here). 

Next up is an ad for one of the Brady family’s favorite car dealers: Milad’s, in Amherst at 200 N. Leavitt Road.

The full-page ad ran in the Journal on March 16, 1971.

The psychedelic smoke coming from the clay pipe (what’s he smoking anyway?) spelling out “Shamrock Specials" gives the ad a real 1970s feel. The leprechaun art is kind of unusual; he’s not the usual cute type of wee folk, nor is he simian in appearance.

Our family sure bought a lot of cars from Milad’s over the years. Our favorite salesman there was Joe, and he always took good care of us. He sold my parents new cars, and also had a standing order to keep an eye out for used Cutlasses. At one point when all of the Brady Bunch family members were driving, our driveway on Skyline Drive looked like a used Oldsmobile car lot.

I wrote about our family’s love affair with the Cutlass here. I still get a funny yearning inside when I see one from the 60s or 70s that’s still on the road – especially if it’s green.