August 1936 Signs of the Times Focused on Outdoor Advertising

A Kick and a Buzz

THE COVER FOR Signs of the Times’ August 1936 issue features a majestic pegasus monument display for the Magnolia Petroleum Co., signaling the issue’s focus on outdoor signage and advertising. One article on “Better Beer Posters…” showcases four 24-sheet outdoor posters (or billboards) advertising Rainier Beer and Ale, Brown Derby, Olympia Beer and Acme Beer along the West Coast with “good art work, good color choice, good agency supervision, good reproduction work, and good sense.” The author notes that by this time, beer had been “back” in the US for over three years. See complete issues of Signs of the Times now dating from 1906 through 1930 at signsofthetimes.com/archive.

• Signs South of the Border
  A subsequent article on outdoor advertising focuses on the proliferation of billboards in Mexico, which was becoming a popular travel destination for US citizens. The author, Leslie Caldwell, remarks that outdoor displays should be widely used because they were the only medium reaching the large part of the public, Mexico practically having no national newspapers or magazines at the time. The capital Mexico City in particular was ample with painted bulletins, poster-panel displays and electrical advertising services, in which “a more progressive spirit is apparent than is generally to be found in many southern countries.”