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Like any­one who loves the his­tory of exploita­tion and hor­ror film­mak­ing, Your Humble Reviewer is fas­ci­nated by the ad-mats that were used to sell these kinds of films to the pub­lic.  Newspaper adver­tis­ing for films is quickly being phased out today in these internet-driven times but it was once a key method of pro­mot­ing films.  The ads the stu­dios would devise to hook the moviego­ing pub­lic were often as eye-catching and hyper­bolic as the trail­ers they would play in the theaters.

Thus, it is a great plea­sure to bring you the news that a crash-course in the his­tory of this adver­tis­ing approach is now avail­able for your edu­ca­tion and enter­tain­ment.  Fred Adelman of the Critical Condition zine and web­site has recently cre­ated a com­pre­hen­sive set of scans drawn from his leg­endary ad-mat col­lec­tion.  Said col­lec­tion cov­ers nearly two decades worth of adver­tis­ing from the golden era for these films — 1970 to 1994 — and fills 3200 binder pages.

Fred has painstak­ingly scanned these pages for 300 dpi image qual­ity and com­piled them into a 2-DVDR set offer­ing nearly 8 GB’s worth of eye-popping ads.  A few sam­ples, down­graded to 100 dpi, are included here for your view­ing plea­sure.  Be sure to click on them — and remem­ber the Criticial Condition set will include them at an even-better-looking 300 dpi resoluation.

The best part of this offer is the price: this jaw-dropping col­lec­tion is avail­able for the princely sum of $35.00.  Anyone inter­ested should click on over to Fred’s Critical Condition web­site posthaste and con­tact him to place an order.  This set is avail­able for a lim­ited time only so act fast (Your Humble Reviewer already has).  You won’t regret it.  Here’s the link you need to check out, which includes order­ing info and more samples:

http://www.critcononline.com/binder_scan_offer.htm

And if you aren’t famil­iar with Fred’s site, then make sure you stick around and browse awhile.  There are tons of fun, zine-style reviews for all man­ner of exploita­tion flicks and mul­ti­ple gal­leries of video-box cov­ers from clas­sic indie labels that spe­cial­ized in b-movie fare.  Time there is time well spent for exploitation-flick scholars.