Vintage Valentine's Day Ad

Hello! The end of February is close, so I thought I'd show off a vintage Valentine's Day ad in honor of the month's signature event. 

This FTD ad appeared in a Reader's Digest sometime between the mid-50's/early 60's. That was the range of years in the bundle of Reader's Digest magazines that I found at a thrift store a couple of years ago. That bundle remains a favorite find of mine, because I love vintage magazines. 

Here's a close-up of the three men in the ad:

They clearly are from very different backgrounds, but they have something in common: they're all holding what appears to be a small FTD catalogue, and they're all on the phone (rotary dial, of course) to order floral arrangements from FTD. According to the ad, a total of 26 arrangements were available in that catalogue, so our men had plenty to choose from.

Now let's "meet" our three gentlemen up close. 

Mr. Suave here says "...the H-17 bouquet for Valentine's Day. Does the $7.50 include the vase? Swell! I'll take twelve..."

And to underscore this large order, Mr. Suave is shown with twelve small picture frame - undoubtedly with photos of those twelve lady friends in them. Ugh. I don't think this sort of behavior would go over too well in a magazine ad today. 

The gentleman in the middle:

And he says "...yeah, C-1...with all them little roses in it. How quick can you get it to Hackensack?"

This man is dressed in rugged work clothes, and he's calling from a pay phone, so he's away from home. Truck driver, maybe, or perhaps a delivery man? No matter, as those long as C-1 gets sent to Hackensack in time!

Our first two seem quite assertive about their orders, but not so with the last gentleman:

He says "H-13, please. Sign it, 'Love, Norm.' Wait...better make that 'Regards, Norman Q. Frisby.' It's been awhile since I've seen her and..."

Norman Q. Frisby may have a good white collar job somewhere - he's dressed in a nice suit - but he sure is a wimpy sort. Still, I couldn't help but wonder why it'd been awhile since he'd seen the woman he was sending the floral arrangment to. Had he been neglecting her because of working too much at the office? In the meantime, had another man begun to move in on her? 

Or maybe it was his mother that he had been neglecting, though it seems odd that he'd want to sign his message that formally. But I guess I'll never know. 

Like I said, three very different men are depicted in this ad. To further highlight their differences, each "quote" was printed in a different font. Nevertheless, they all had one thing in common: a reliance on FTD to help them out on Valentine's Day.