In The 1970s, National Lampoon Magazine Took Any & All Advertisers

Model demonstrating the proper facial use of a vibrator. From National Lampoon, January 1977

Matty Simmons the CEO of National Lampoon and author of If You Don’t Buy This Book We’ll Kill This Dog (Barricade Books), describes in his 1994 memoir the challenges of getting traditional advertisers during National Lampoon magazine’s first decade.

National Lampoon, known for comedy and satire trampling upon cherished institutions, societal mores, newsmakers, and famous people, could not attract the traditional advertisers such as restaurant chains, auto manufacturers, and big brand consumer products.

Catering to the counter-culture and hip adults, National Lampoon was a pariah to 1970s companies.

Advertisers were wary to associate with a magazine verging on the offensive. Media buying agencies would advise their national clients to avoid the magazine. For those advertisers who would dare to take a chance and advertise in National Lampoon, they would be treading on dangerous ground. Upon receiving a few letters threatening boycotts of their product, many a National Lampoon advertiser would quickly end their association with the magazine.

So National Lampoon took whatever advertising they could get. Simmons describes the early advertisers as a small number of regular consumer product advertisers like cigarette manufacturers, and wide array of audio related manufacturers and illicit products related to prurient interests. Those advertisers didn’t seem to care if people were upset by their ties to National Lampoon.

Here is a brief sample of advertising from the January 1977 issue.

Epic Records new album Free For All from Ted Nugent is hitting the right audience in National Lampoon. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out Ted Nugent suggested the ad’s headline. It’s actually a modification of a line from the title song.

I do not know anyone who owned an Accutrac 4000. Reading the ad, I agree it sounds like something out of the 21st century – a record player that can be programmed to play only specific tracks off an album.

You can purchase one of these turntables today for about $200 on Reverb or a similar site.

I had to examine this ad for Pioneer audio several times. What a mish-mosh of products and text. What exactly are they advertising? A great example of a terrible 1970s advertisement.

How desperate was the magazine for advertising? They must have given WRNW-FM (107.1) a great rate for this full page ad. The small station in Briarcliff Manor, north of New York City, was in 1977 one of the early stops in the career of Howard Stern. Originally, the station didn’t even have the money to pay a deejay for overnights, so they turned off the transmitter from 2 – 6 a.m..

An ad very relevant 47 years after its initial placement.  I love how the ad very clearly indicates they are cigarette rolling papers. Because soooo many people were rolling there own cigarettes in the 70s. Job Rolling Papers puts up the thin veneer their papers are for tobacco. No rolling any of that wacky weed, Mary Jane, cannabis stuff. No, no, no.

Whereas, the Bionic Bong does not explicitly state it is a product for potheads, but there is no question to whom Sativa is marketing to.

Why is it Bionic? Search me. Maybe this is the preferred bong of The Six Million Dollar Man.

Finally, cigarette companies were one of the few mainstream products that did advertise regularly in National Lampoon. Hell, why not? A youthful, impressionable audience could be reached. Big Tobacco could even afford color ads.

I find it rather amusing that there is still a ban on cigarette advertising, yet, advertising gambling web sites and lotteries, which cater to people who can least afford to part with money, is embraced by the government.

In the meantime, have another toke of decriminalized cannabis.

If you don’t like pot, just remember, “you’d enjoy smoking, too, if you smoked Salem.”