A message from Sugar Information, Inc. -- "She needs sugar in her life."

A vintage ad from the non-partisan Sugar Information, Inc.

Mary got to school early for Student Council. Her team won in gym. After play reheasal, she'll Watusi with the gang. She needs sugar in her life. For energy. She needs energyless, artificially sweetened foods and beverages like a turtle needs a seat belt. Sugar wings. Serve some.

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Doran

I love the “Note to Mothers”. Yes, protect your kids. Feed them sugar. Lots and lots of sugar.
occlupanid

over a decade ago i found this ad in a copy of LIFE magazine, dufifully xeroxed it, and placed it everywhere i could think of. The stilted grammar, attempt at hipness, and general oddness of the ad made it irresistable to me. Alas, i had lost the ad and couldn’t find any existence of this ehpemera on the internets. Thank you for reuniting me with Watusi Mary!
isani

“18 calories per spoon, and it’s all energy.”

Calories measure energy. Imagine that.

“4 grams per spoon, and it’s all weight.”
“5 milliliters per spoon, and it’s all volume.”
Nora Rocket

I remember high school: always with the endless need to Watusi with the gang after an interminable play rehearsal, not to mention sports and civic activities, and it was never, NEVER enough for Mother, WAS IT, MOTHER?!
Iason

Man, I love the “Note to Mothers,” too. I expected a legal disclaimer along the lines of “oh, by the way, sugar makes you fat.” I forgot that we didn’t invent the disclaimer until the 80s. Instead, it’s a warning about the dangers of “exhaustion.” “Play safe with your young ones — make sure they get sugar every day.”
Lady Katey

hmmm…. my box of Domnio white granulated sugar claims only 15 calories per teaspoon!

and I think the message of “don’t feed your kids/teenagers artificial sweeteners, they don’t need ‘em” is quite sound even today.
rstevens

Obesity sure beats brain cancer. Thanks, Rumsfeld!
jimh

Bad creative copy. Three quarters of the way through I forgot all about sugar and Mary, and became obsessed with turtle safety.
Dave X

She’d have more energy if she quit doing the Watusi in Grandma’s big-ass sweater!
non-BB-gadget-account

i’m so out of touch… i just had to wikipedia “watusi” to find out what they’re talking about.
mightymouse1584

i think this will be my new favorite analogy/metaphor/whatever (any grammar nazis out there?). “i need ____ like a turtle needs a safety belt”
megs

sugar does make me swing baby. after a long day at school of cheerleading, the debate team and flirting with the captain of the football team i go home and eat a whole jar of sugar!

ha the beauty of vintage ads!
mdhatter

Sugar makes you a swinger?

sweet!
Jacob Garbe

Is that Bjork? It explains so much…
thecitydesk

And I thought I was being ridiculous with this fake ad I made years go-
http://community.livejournal.com/vintage_ads/479978.html
sexyrobot

it’s Velma, from scooby doo. she’s on a ‘freak-out’
Marcelo

“sugar does make me swing baby. after a long day at school of cheerleading, the debate team and flirting with the captain of the football team i go home and eat a whole jar of sugar!”

You forgot to Watusi with the gang.
Compulsive Reader

It would have made for a great Nation Of Ulysses flyer back in the day…
Elayne Riggs

Right on! Sugar is ten times better than artificial sweeteners, and is especially preferable to that high fructose corn syrup crap that’s now in EVERYthing instead of sugar and is a major cause of unhealthy eating. But of course as long as fatphobic people automatically associate sugar with calories and calories with fat and fat with evil (as if thin people didn’t eat corn syrupy crap food too?), we’ll never be able to have a normal conversation about healthy eating.
Rich Gibson

At first it seems like an absurd ‘oh what naive fools they were back then’ ad. Sort of like cigarette ads featuring doctors, but I’m now with Elayne. Sugar is okay. 16 or 18 calories per teaspoon is reasonable for the taste of sweet.

Our modern Mary still gets all the calories she got in the 50′s from sugar, but now she also gets a big shot of high fructose corn syrup…

btw: it sure _seems_ that the ‘bedazzled’ link is to a spam blog. I’m not sure if that is important or not :-/
cycle23

Jones Soda is still less good for me than Orange Juice.
dogpurse

Someone PLEASE turn this into a song
Robotech_Master

If you’re ever in St. Louis, stop by Fitz’s, a restaurant and soda pop bottling plant that uses only sugar, not corn syrup, in its non-diet drinks. Some of the best root beer and creme soda I’ve ever had.

I only wish I didn’t live too far away to get cases of it regularly.
folk

What, the sugar people are against turtle road safety? /Bastards/!
joe blough

@jacob: LOL, i thought it was bjork too!
Phikus

That’s sugar swings, baby! (-not sugar wings, as you have quoted here. I love this site, but you guys could use a proofreader sometimes.)
Giovanni

Wow, that’s the most non-nonsensical ad I’ve ever seen.

“Sugar swings. Server some.”

wtf does that mean?!