Aviation gets used in advertising in many – some surprising – ways. Food advertising can include logical connections, but in the earlier days of aviation, when it was new and exciting, aviation was sometimes used where no connection existed. The idea of selling oats through an aircraft link seems odd today, but was clearly an idea in America in the 1900s.

Far from the only example, here’s three tins for mustard, coffee and ginger from the inter war period. Note the two rectangular tins are also from ‘The Donald Company’ of Grand Island, Nebraska, like the oat package above. The aircraft they’ve chosen, like their earlier one above, are generic, but give a clue to the era they’re from.

The coffee is from a different organisation, and I wonder if the portrait is intended to seem like an identifiable airman, as an apparent, but not real endorsed product, in an era when pilots were the superstars of their day. It’s a good example of where the term ‘ace’ was recognised in the popular vernacular. Again, we touch lightly on an area which could easily fill an entire year of blogs just in itself.

James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer.

Rolled oats pack from here, details of the other tins from here.