A few days ago I was out digging in the dirt and shaking the bushes in search of some cool old stuff and lo and behold I found a tin with a neato ad character!
Here’s the tin - Wynn’s Friction Proofing Engine Tune-Up from 1956.
Nothing too special about the front, but when you look at the lid you’re greeted by the Auto-Medic.
Isn’t he fun? Yeah, I think so too.
After I brought him home, I remembered buried deep in my tub of magazine ads I had an ad with this guy.
To me he kind of looks like the Invisible Man without the cool sunglasses. Maybe he’s the Unknown Soldier from DC Comics. Yeah, that’s it, Unknown Soldier went to work for Wynn after WWII and became the Auto-Medic.
(Sorry, getting off track there.)
The Auto-Medic is kin to another fun Wynn ad mascot and I posted him during the 2008 Halloween countdown. He’s name is the Wear-Wolf. You can visit that post here.
Take a look at this store display featuring the Wear-Wolf.
A little while back the first lady and I watched the classic atomic bomb movie Panic In Year Zero and noticed a Wear-Wolf display co-starring in a scene with Ray Milland as seen in this screen grab.
Sad, but true, I get excited when I see old packaging or products in movies.
Maybe someday in a future Flea Market Fridays I’ll post that I found this same display. Boy, that would be something!
I also have a thing for finding old packaging in movies. I get a kick out of watching 80's movies to remember what everyday name brand products looked like then. I actually started a blog about it. I've started collecting old magazines to get the old ads. It's funny how some things have changed so much.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing relics of the past in movies, too!
ReplyDeleteI spent ages looking at that Auto Medic Guy, wondering why they made him look like a mummy... it only dawned on me just now that he's a doctor with a face mask on!
D'oh!
Since Ray Milland also directed the film, I wonder if he had a product-placement deal with Wynn's.
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