vintage toronto world ad of the day

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Vintage Ad #1,680: That Blood Poisoning Victim Looks Suspiciously Like a Zombie...


How to turn a nice sketch of a turn-of-the-century gentleman into a depiction of a hideous victim of venereal disease: assign the printer to randomly drop ink over a second copy and switch his fancy tie into a bow tie.

The victim in today's ad looks not so much like a tragic sufferer of syphilis, but more like an Edwardian conception of a zombie or a gentleman whose portrait was painted by Basil Hallward. 

Source: the Toronto World, May 21, 1902.

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