Mastercard Adverts Through The Ages

Of late, I’ve found myself rather hacked off by those hideous Mastercard adverts in which we are informed that borrowing lots of money from them is priceless. They seem to have been around forever.

So what if they had?

1888

Black suit, top hat and Inverness: Ten pounds, six shillings
Knives of finest Sheffield steel: Three guineas
Carriage ride to Whitechapel: Two shillings and sixpence

Cleansing the streets of filthy whores: Priceless
Or possibly…

2450BC

One million tons of stone: 100,000 talents
40,000 slaves working time and a half for a year: 5,000 talents
Gold and lapis inlaid sarcophagus: 1,000 talents

A luxurious eternal life in the next world: Priceless
Any more for any more?

1950’s:

The latest “rock and roll” album: $1.98

An evening at the movies for the family: $5.00

Repressing women and minorities: Priceless

Earliest MasterCard commercial that we have record of (for some reason, they invented credit cards before they invented money):

Sticks: some plants
More sticks: a large chunk of rock
Even more sticks: your wife

Setting self on fire: priceless

Some things no buy with money…whatever that is. All other things MasterCard do. Accepted all places.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=138905&perpage=50&pagenumber=33

Read Nithy’s post. It’s second down from the top.