Tell me a story

With its graphic simplicity and bare-bones copy, this 1970 Betty Crocker ad seems about 30 years ahead of its time. But it's more than just the visual puns so common in ads today. The old saying goes that one picture is worth 1,000 words; here, the photo is so evocative in its storytelling, the ad gets by with just twenty-seven:
"Everything is in this new buttermilk pancake mix -- even egg and shortening. All you add is water to bake up golden fluffy pancakes or crisp hearty waffles."
The unusual setting, the bedraggled figure, the obvious irony and the implied frustration combine for an ad that makes its simple point in a memorable way. One can easily imagine how it stood out alongside the more typical food ads in the pages of Better Homes & Gardens and Ladies Home Journal.

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