Charles Atlas, Archetypes in Advertising

Modern advertising makes an indelible impression on the young mind. If you're, say, a boy from Austria you may have been influenced to take up an activity like, say, bodybuilding. Who knew it would lead to the governorship of a large western state? In this installment: Gene traces the evolution of the he-man in advertising, or what the state of California owes Charles Atlas.

I found this at The Presurfer. It's a bit political but is an interesting retrospective of societal programming nonetheless. You'll enjoy it for no other reason than for the photos and this paragraph:

My mother always said, "Don't mix politics and graphic arts," but since I ignored most of my mother's other advice, I'm going to shine this tidbit as well. I began to doubt my mother's wisdom about the time she made up those rubber-band-in-the-eye stories, and started chronicling the various fatal ailments you could get by drinking out of public water fountains.