Horrifying 1950s Reminders to Take Vitamins

Waaaaaayyyy back before the dead celebrities depicted in Jason Mecier’s pill portraits had consumed their first capsules, and in an era that lacked the hipster irony of Desire Obtain Cherish’s dead celebrity pill portraits, an earnest vitamin maker thought THIS was a good idea.

In the 1950s, Abbott Labs used food, candy and cigarettes to create a series of horrifying advertising mascots. They designed the advertisements to be hung in doctors’ offices and inspire patients to take Dayalets. Dayalets, aka “the people’s medicine,” were thought to right all the wrongs of a meat-and-potatoes diet and heavy nicotine regimen, as was popular at the time.

Sometime thereafter, Abbott Labs published the color reproductions “suitable for framing,” which is how I found them, on the great LILEKS website. Click through for pretzel ears, carrot hands and “Starchy Pete.” Let these Dayalets vitamin characters provide further inspiration to improve your diet and exercise in 2013 rather than rely on a resolution to take vitamins!