Moulas Bros. Furniture Ad – Feb. 25, 1954

We always think of the 1950s as being pretty conservative. But every so often I run across a vintage advertisement from that time frame in an old edition of the Lorain Journal that surprises me. 

Above is a pretty good example. It's an ad for Moulas Bros. Furniture located at 1024 Broadway in Lorain. A sale on Serta mattresses is the focus of the ad, but a rather offbeat approach is used. The illustration of the doctor (with dangling stethoscope) examining the bare back of an attractive brunette looks like it was poached from a sleazy paperback from that era – especially since they are posed right next to a mattress!

What do you think?

(No, these are not from my personal library.)

Looking at the Moulas ad (remember, I was a graphic designer for more than 35 years), I get the feeling that the ad was slapped together at a gallop. Graphic elements (such as the Serta logo) are positioned crookedly; one logo overlaps the border of the ad; the top of a whole line of bold type is cut off by the bottom of the mattress art; and the top of the head of the doctor (if indeed that's what he is) is trimmed to fit somewhat sloppily.

I wasn't sure if the ad was assembled in the Journal art department or if it was supplied by an agency since the Serta sale was a national event. But a quick Google search, I had my answer: it was actually part of the national campaign! Here's the magazine ad version.

The Reddit website page where I found the magazine ad had some hilarious comments. So I'm not the only one who finds it amusing.

I'm guessing that the Journal pasteup artist was given a copy of the magazine ad, and told to cut it up and use it as needed to assemble one for Moulas Bros.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that it's a Serta ad. I had a crush on Joey Heatherton thanks to Serta's early 1970s TV commercials.

I still like a nice pixie cut on a woman, thanks to Joey.