Originally Posted by Wonder Boy
Probably the most famous comic book ad of all, Charles Atlas' "The insult that made a man out of Mac."

[Linked Image from media.comicbook.com]
Originally Posted by Wonder Boy
Originally Posted by Wonder Boy
Here's an article that collects a bunch of the ads I recall from that era.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/sea-monkeys-and-x-ray-spex/

I think probably the best-known comic book ad is "Hey Skinny", the Charles Atlas bodybuilding ad. And a variation of it, "The Incident that Made A Man out of Mac". Where some musclebound guy on the beach kicks sand in a skinny guy's face, and then he takes the mail-order musclebuilding course, comes back to the beach and kicks the musclebound guy's ass. And his girlfriend comes back to him saying "Ohh Mac! You're real man after all!"

I re-read PLOP 2, published in 1973, including a story by Sergio Aragones, "Hey Skinny!", that parodies the above ads. Initially following the ad storyline, a skinny guy is bullied, is rejected by his girl for not being manly enough, then meets a scientist who offers him to experiment with a formula that is supposed to, Captain America-like, almost instantly grow his physique and give animal-like virility.
He daydreams before taking the formula that he'll turn into a werewolf and rip the big muscular guy who bullied him to shreds. In the next panel the girl who spurned him, who left him for the bully, now cuddles him adoringly saying "Ohh Mac! You're a werewolf now!"

Great stuff.

The full issue online for PLOP issue 2, with the aforementioned "Hey, Skinny" parody story by Aragones, :
https://viewcomiconline.com/plop-issue-2/