Thursday, December 23, 2021

Kline’s Christmas Ad – Dec. 9, 1971

The 1970s were a time of change in the style of the ads that appeared in newspapers, especially those created by their art departments. The availability of modern clip art done in a loose style resulted in a shift away from the old-fashioned style of illustration and more towards anything that seemed new and different.

Thus you had an ad like the one above for Kline’s, a mainstay store in Downtown Lorain for more than sixty years. It’s an unusual looking ad, with Santa depicted as an amorphous blob all for the sake of making room for text. Kline’s was a chain, however, and it’s possible that the ad was created by its own agency or in-house art department.

Quite a difference from the Santa in this ad for Kline’s from 1956.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe that approximately three years after the Dec. 1971 ad ran in the Journal that it would be announced that Kline’s would be closing its Lorain store.

7 comments:

  1. Those white boots in the Northern Saving's ad were "go-go" boots. At least that's how I remembered them. I had to have a pair. And for some reason, I just remembered it's regular contributor, Alan Dee's birthday today. I think so anyway. Happy Birthday Alan Dee!

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  2. Y'know, all these years, I never knew that Kline's was a chain!

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  3. Happy Birthday, Alan! I was surprised to discover it was a chain as well, when I first started to research it.

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  4. Happy Birthday Alan.It is always good to read your comments on these posts.Have a Merry Xmas too.

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing! Like some others here, I was not aware that Kline's was chain. I never thought of them that way. I have a beautiful white and blue bedspread that I bought from Kline's so many years ago. It has held up well. I know I purchased other items from that store. Kline's was always among my favorite stores to stop in and shop for awhile that graced Broadway when it was the hub; the center of my shopping experience as a child and young adult. Quite often my mother and I would walk over the bascule bridge from our home on Arizona Avenue to window shop and stop in some of the stores with interesting window displays. The newspaper advertisements sure help me remember those times!

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