What’s more disturbing in this 1940 Safeway ad?

The headline: “Now really fresh mayonnaise?”

Or, the scary talking head of lettuce (guessing about the lettuce head; could be the verbose vegetable is a large Brussels sprout) who announces to potential shoppers, via talk bubble, that really fresh (as opposed to spoiled) mayonnaise “makes seafoods, salads, sandwiches all taste better!”

SafewayAd

Never mind a quart jar of Nu Made Mayonnaise was just 35 cents back then. Never mind store-bought mayo in 1940 apparently wasn’t always fresh (or safe – that’s where Miracle Whip came in). Never mind the Duke of Richelieu invented mayonnaise in France in 1756. And, never mind that the average price of a quart of mayonnaise in 2014 is roughly $4.00.

The real story here seems to be the nearly complete disappearance (on the internet, at least) of the Nu Made brand. Based on way-too-much web surf time, we can confirm that Nu Made mayonnaise was manufactured by Safeway (although Nu Made apparently dropped the space and became “Numade” in 1956). We can also confirm Nu Made mayo or salad dressing were NOT related to the much more famous Nu-Maid Margarine. That slippery, butter-like substance was created by a Cincinnati, Ohio man who founded, for reasons only he understood, a company called “Miami Margarine.”

For any readers still interested in this convoluted historical tale, we can finally confirm that Safeway’s Numade trademark expired in 1998 and is currently for sale.

So – what about that totally creepy, very weird talking head of lettuce? Strangely (or not), there are still people in our world who still think that concept is appealing.

Meet Julie the make-up artist, who surprisingly, does not live in Portland

lettylettucehead

Another Scary Lettuce Head

And for you music aficionados…
Here’s one of America’s most famous rock and roll vegetable lovers, Frank Zappa
[youtube id=”XhDGiW-qZ2k”]

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