1943 – Bob Hope – Pepsodent tooth paste advertisement – What to do with a Victory Garden

Redbook Magazine 1943
By Bob Hope for the Pepsodent Company

1. Of course, you know what a Victory Garden is. That’s a little garden where you go out and putter around for a while, and if you can straighten your back again it’s a victory. It’s fun, though. I have a beautiful patch — on my right hand where the blister broke!

Bob Hope in ‘Road to the Victory Garden’ (editor’s imagination).

2. Mother Nature is really wonderful. For instance, suppose you want carrots. Well, you just drop a seed in the ground and in no time at all up comes a rabbit. Of course, if you want a bright smile, some Pepsodent planted on your brush does wonders every time.

3. After your garden has started to grow, it’s very important to use Pepsodent – the film-removing tooth paste. It puts a bright gleam on your teeth — so if the sun doesn’t come out one day, you can walk around with a big smile and shine on your vegetables.

4. Watch out for pests. I’m not bothered with birds anymore — since I tossed a tube of Pepsodent into their nest. Now they haven’t time to do any damage – they’re too busy brushing each other’s teeth and singing, “Oh, it floats away film with the greatest of ease!”

5. Well, that’s all. Just don’t forget the tomatoes. I find the best way to remember then is to keep their phone numbers in a little book. You know, the same book you write in when you want to remember to buy Pepsodent — the only tooth paste containing Irium.

See larger version of full-page advertisement here.