Vintage products are hot commodities for fashion and décor. They can make an outfit shine and tie entire rooms together. And sometimes they even work their magic while showcasing archery. Check out these vintage advertisements that used archery in their marketing campaigns.

Blatz Beer

Blatz Beer ran an ad in 1945 that featured a strong female archer. The ad shows her aiming and smiling, and with two arrows already in the bull’s-eye. She’s wearing a leather shooting glove, and her forearm is protected by a leather armguard. The company connects the picture with its print slogan by using archery terms. The tagline reads, “Good Taste that never misses,” and the description includes the phrase “if good taste is your aim.”

Life Savers Candy

An ad campaign for Life Savers hard candy in 1949 featured a target made of Life Savers, with arrows going through the candies’ signature holes. The ad appears to have run in the Saturday Evening Post, whose title runs atop the ad. The holes in the middle of the candy pieces resemble a bull’s-eye, so grouping them together to make a target is genius.

Colgate

A young couple gazes happily at each other over an archery target in a 1959 ad for Colgate toothpaste. Archery isn’t mentioned in the ad’s slogan or message, but the image implies archery is fun and makes people smile. Therefore, people should buy Colgate to make their smiles even brighter. Likewise, archery makes many of us happy today. We’re glad to know it made people happy in the 1950s, too.

Lipton Tea

Alexis Smith, a classic Hollywood actress, was featured in a Lipton Tea ad that ran in Family Circle in 1945. The ad notes that Smith “finds the brisk flavor of iced Lipton’s delightfully refreshing as she rests during archery practice.” Lipton often enlisted the day’s A-List talent in its vintage ads, and this one included the bonus of archery. We don’t know if Smith was a big archer, but this ad implies she liked the sport. Much like us, maybe Hollywood legends also liked to practice archery in their free time.

Willy’s Jeep

Jeep was all about archery in a 1951 ad for its station wagon. The slogan reads: “Aiming at cutting costs? Get the car that really hits the bull’s-eye!” The ad features a huge target in the background with an arrow in its center. Smaller targets in the ad feature reasons you should buy the car. We’d say archery helped Willy’s make a compelling case to buy one of its cars.

The London Underground

A 1930 ad for the London Underground uses archery to imply that its trains are as fast as a speeding arrow. The arrow in the ad is a lightning bolt. Using archery in such an abstract way in this ad looks pretty neat.

Coke

Coca-Cola hopped on the archery theme with a 1948 poster that shows two young people sharing a Coke while shooting archery. The Coca-Cola label is strategically placed to look like the target’s inner ring. The archers even have quivers on their backs, making an aesthetically pleasing scene.

Ad campaigns featuring archery always look great, especially when they’ve been around for decades. From the 1930s to now, archery helps sell fun and pleasure by showing people enjoying the sport alone or with friends and family. We hope such themes continue to share archery’s enjoyment for years to come.

If you’re so inclined, let these vintage archery ads inspire you in your décor, your style and at the range.