From the April 13, 1906 NYT is an advertisement by Anheuser-Busch :

A beverage made of barley-malt which is flavored with hops, induces restful sleep and yields placid nerves? Hmmm...that sounds something like - BEER!! Okay, perhaps it wasn't fermented beer, that is, it was alcohol free, but are we sure about that?

After all, according to my knowledge of brewing (some say I have a knack for the science), it isn't the hops that provides for a restful sleep.

Such interesting advertisements populate the old papers. My understanding of truth in advertising and consumer protection laws, such as food labelling, etc., is that they stemed from ads like this. Mothers (or fathers, or both) were "tricked" into thinking that drinking "predigested food" (that probably looked, smelled, and perhaps tasted a lot like beer - even if it wasn't technically beer) was preferred to, say, eating some broccoli and drinking some milk.

Well, perhaps some folks need/needed to be protected from big beer and themselves, as well as Nigerian e-mailers.

In the spirit of the c. 1906 posts I contribute - hopefully to someone's entertainment/edification - I found the 1902 Sears, Roebuck and Company blog, where interesting tidbits from that year's catalog will hopefully be posted on a regular basis.

From the April 11 post:

I was planning to do this with the 1908 SR catalog, but instead, perhaps I will start offering more display ads (like I did here).