Stupid as hell...we all know it were United and American Airlines that crashed...I think the ad is classy! The only prophecy I can make based on this absurdity is...I am not amused,,,at all! Tasteless.

Update: The advertisement is definitely real. This has been verified by a reference librarian at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library (which, apparently, is the only library in America that has back copies of Le Point). The advertisement appeared on p.143 of the March 19, 1979 issue, #339. The ad also ran in other issues, such as April 2, 1979, p.163. (Thanks to J Fontane for tracking down and verifying the authenticity of the ad.)

Seriously.... how many of the 9/11 hijackers were Pakistani?

The answer is Zero.... this is not to say Pakistan doesn't have serious problems with Islamic terrorism... but please put things in proper perspective.

Can somebody explain the physics of how shadows work in Pakistan? The only way I can make it work is if the 747 was flying AWAY *FROM* the towers.

Incidentally, there are tons of ads of planes+landmarks around.

ROTFL: do you have a citation?

I work in pharmaceutical advertising. The Thorazine ad is real and has been featured in pharma ad retrospectives several times. It is NOT a direct-to-consumer ad -- it ran in medical journals only. It is true that DTC ads for prescription drugs did not exist before the 1980s. However, ads aimed at doctors have existed at least since the 1920s.

I've also seen most of the rest of these ads elsewhere, and I'm certain all of them are real. What is it that is making people proclaim they're "fake"? What are the supposed tell-tale signs? I'm curious.

jfontane:

when i was in college the net barely existed. i saw this in a mag unless that mag was a fake back then...

i will see i i can dig it up from my professor, this will take aq few weeks to dig up...

can we continue off-line? here's my email:

edexnyc[at]gmail[com]

gossipgirl: *VIA PIA* is only creepy cuz it happened more than 20 years later?

Not so much.

- - -

If a gorilla attacked the ESB would the King Kong be discounted as creepy?

Not so much.

1)Comic Book Guy -- you're using a website called "Deco Dog's Ephemera" to definitively prove your point? some of the materials posted on that website may be marketing materials sent directly to doctors or in medical journals. But show me an ad actually physically located in a magazine, with date, page number, citation and I'll retract my point.

plus: does anyone really think Thorazine would have placed an ad showing a crazy old man waving a cane? what intended market would that reach?

2) edEx writes "The PIA ad is real." I'd be glad to take your word for it, but can you show me some verifiable proof? Did you see that edition of Le Point magazine, or just some online image of it, which could easily have been doctored, as emilydickinson points out? I did a database search in proquest for any reference to this advertisement -- wouldn't it maybe get at least one reference in any newspaper or magazine? and it yielded zero responses.

3) Generally speaking, why are people so quick to believe any nonsense they see on the Internet? If materials are not posted without verifiable proof, people should be extremely skeptical. What separates modern times from the Dark Ages? In the latter period people were ruled by superstition, rumor and other nonverifiable sources of information. The Internet is doing its part to bring back those good times.

Okay edEx, those 2 ads, not NEARLY as creepy.

The PIA ad is real. I have seen this ad prior to 9/11 in college and again post 9/11. at that time (if you have done a shred of research) the WTC Twin Towers were very iconic and

everyone wanted to use them in adverting and film so it should be of no surprise that they're used in an international airline ad.

also, arab terrorism against the west was in its very infancy at that time—no relation.

here are two more ads that use the world trade center as the focal point, that are as creepy or creepier.

http://bp0.blogger.com/__XCWUd8FFjQ/RhUaPb4gkaI/AAAAAAAAArM/wTCfDh7LF1Q/s1600-h/WTCasbestos.jpg

http://bp2.blogger.com/__XCWUd8FFjQ/Ruae-ifIZjI/AAAAAAAABqY/oqd0fQDIyww/s1600-h/WTCad1984.jpg

frankly, this memorial fund ad is more offensive:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2678/1252/1600/wherewereyou.0.jpg

Ahem, silence please!

@ jfontane: http://www.decodog.com/inven/psychological2.html

I believe a "pwned" is quite in order!

Best description of disaronnoblog yet, famdoc.

"I'm in the wrong business...I wish I had a "P.A." that would fact check blogs for me, while I sat on my ass reading blogs needing to be fact checked."

Heh... :-)

This whole post is stupid. Reminds me of those TIME LIFE books. "PIA had an ad in 1979 that featured a plane and the twin towers. More than 20 years later, 9/11 happened. Coincidence?"

Edex and Emily Dickinson,

I should have been more specific. Prescription Drugs (such as Thorazine) were not advertised directly to consumers at that time.

The source for this is a July 22, 2003 statement to the The Senate Special Committee on Aging by Janet Woodcock, M.D., at the time the Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t030722b.html

"Prior to the early 1980s, prescription products were not promoted directly to consumers and patients. At that time, FDA's regulation of promotional drug material was limited to that which manufacturers prepared to present to physicians and other health care professionals. In the early 1980s, a few companies began advertising products directly to patient audiences (specifically, older people concerned about pneumonia and people taking prescription ibuprofen to treat arthritis pain). As questions and concerns directed to the Agency about such DTC promotion began to grow, FDA issued a policy statement on September 2, 1983, requesting a voluntary moratorium on DTC ads."

I'm in the wrong business...I wish I had a "P.A." that would fact check blogs for me, while I sat on my ass reading blogs needing to be fact checked.

There is nothing creepy about the PIA ad more than 20 years old. If this logic were used universally, we'd constantly be freaking out over history's "prediction" of the present.

That is incorrect about the Thorazine ad actually. A bit of checking shows that those types of ads were extremely common in print magazines, as well as posters for doctor's offices. A quick search on ebay and elsewhere will turn up dozens of similar drug ads from teh early 50's onwards.

I guessed I asked for it, DiSaronno.

Nice blog.

It reminds me of some of the detritus on that flight.