Using deadly snakes to sell batteries

This 1949 Winchester Batteries ad was posted to the Vintage Ads LiveJournal group by noluck_boston, depicting a mother-daughter pair whose wise choice of reliable Winchester Batteries have rescued them from the terrible fate of being bitten by a deadly snake in the dark. Now they can be bitten by it in the blinding light of their flashlight. There's also a generous, 1829x1610 scan on Flickr.

Winchester Batteries

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: ad • Copyfight • Delightful Creatures • Funny • Old school

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Antinous / Moderator

I’m going to get all Freudian and say that this represents the triumph of the western industrial phallus over the native phallus.
- Preston Sturges
  
  And yet http://www.westernindustrialphallus.com is still available.
  - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
    
    I was going to squat the tumblr but then decided not to. I bet some BB readers could do well with that.
http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

The Flikr link sez ‘Page not found’
Rats.
Wanted that for wallpaper.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Take the extra ” off the end.
Preston Sturges

He’s going to make them eat apples.
Roy Trumbull

Pit vipers sense IR radiation from their prey. I imagine the IR signature from that lamp filament would make a nice target.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Does that include the deadly Chartreuse Banded Rattlesnake?
http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art

That is one heck of a masterful illustration!
pjcamp

Are those batteries you shoot out of a gun? Cause I could use me come of them.
bigmike7

Snake just looks like it wants to party.

(You might have to turn up your music and have a drink to get that same effect.)
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

Maybe I’m just talking out of my arse, but since snakes are cold-blooded, I don’t think they’re much of a risk at night.

Which kinda makes the ad seem typically tawdry.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  It’s 100° here at midnight in the summer.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
    
    I hate nights like that. More like 92 at midnight here, but the sea breeze stops and all the humidity it blew in just hangs there.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

They see danger, I see a snake saying, “I’m walkin’ here, I’m walkin’ here!” Or I guess technically that would be “I’m slitherin’ here!”
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  http://icanhascheezburger.com/2012/03/13/advice-animals-memes-introducing-misunderstood-shark/
soapdish

I love that old skool Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/Bobsey Twins artwork!
http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

I can’t help but wonder how Kincade would have depicted the flashlight beam.
DreamboatSkanky

“Aw, you found me! Now YOU hide!”
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/42THFKXIPMJHQBIH6OPI4RVIDY Thebes

I’ll tell you, the one time I heard a snake rattle in the dark I sure wished I had a flashlight handy. Just have to walk away slowly and hope you guessed the right direction, not so easy if the buzzworm is under a vehicle or something.