1967 Ethan Allen Treasury American Traditional Custom Room Furniture Print Ad (Plus SealTest Ice Cream)

Yes, this page is
very wrinkled!

 The primary ad here is Ethan Allen.  It's full page, in color, and has a clever comparison.  On a mostly white background, two small photos.  The top one, a bare room with deep yellow walls.  The bottom image, same room tastefully furnished with the best of Ethan Ellen, as recommended by their highly trained Ethan Allen decorators.  From "dreary dud" to "Decorated Den".

    My first impression was that the before and after was achieved purely by adding the perfect selection of furniture to the room.  On the second look, it becomes apparent that they've at least changed the floor as well.  Pretty drastically - from boring and bleah, to a deep reddish-orange that sets off the new furniture.  I'm of two minds about the wall.  Either, its the same wall with no re-paint, but looks deeper orange in contrast with the additional furniture... or they've repainted the wall with a similar, but richer, color.

    Either way, it's a big improvement.  Especially when you read the text below, and understand how MANY things are hidden out of sight due to the clever built-in storage capacity of the furniture in the room.  That impressed me even more.  They're keeping a hi-fi set, 300 records, 2 loudspeakers, a ham radio transmitter and receiver, a tool chest, 135 books, 29 favorite pipes, a fully-stocked bar, and a lot of games.  No matter how I look at it, it doesn't look like that many things could possibly fit so neatly in that space.  Kudos to Ethan Allen.

    But... if you know me, you know I'm not all that excited about a furniture ad.  It's the opposite side that holds my attention.  Not so large, it's only a 3/4 page ad, but it has very rich, eye-catching colors.  This is actually one of my favorite ads, it's not the first time I've run across it, not even the 2nd, but it's the first time I 100% agree with their "Ice Cream for Husbands" claim.

    The first couple of times I ran across the ad, the whole marketing campaign appealed to my sense of humor, particularly as it compared with modern attitudes.  The ad is targeted at wives, the person doing the shopping, but works to convince her this is a "manly" ice cream, for manly men.  Only guys that prefer beef stew to bouillon meet the standard.  If your husband is manly enough, this is the ice cream to get him.  It's 60% creamier than ordinary ice cream.  Sealtest Prestige French, the creamier ice cream.  The ice cream for husbands... but their point was flawed by the presentation.

    As funny as it was, and as much as the 50-years-later humor appealed, the one thing that ruined it was the flavor.  The other times I saw this ad, it showcased Strawberry ice cream.  And really, strawberry ice cream just doesn't seem like a manly flavor.  Strawberries are soft; they're... pink(-ish).  Somebody in Sealtest goofed.  This ad fixed that.  It's like adding the cherry on top of an all-chocolate banana split.  The ice cream showcased in this one... is "TRIPLE CHOCOLATE".  When you read that flavor, it's like there's a background narrator saying Triple Chocolate in a deep, resonant masculine voice.  This has got to be the most masculine ice cream flavor ever, and now I'm craving it.  Not sure if it's still in production all these decades later... but I hope so.  :^)