![Cover of Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #40](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/v8kAAeSwNINqIw0J/s-l225.jpg)
Dates
- Cover date
- Fall 1982
- On sale
- 1982
- Pages
- 92
Editions and covers (2)
Copies of #40 are not all the same book. Here is how to tell each one apart.
Creators
Stories
- Trademark Graffiti · Add-vertising Dept. · 4 pages
- The MAD Madison Avenue Primer · 3 pages
An attempt to make the world of advertising understandable by seven-year olds.
- While Strolling Through the City · 2 pages
A man and a woman strolling down the street notice businesses with descriptive street signs.
- Mad's Do-It-Yourself Modern Movie Ads · Slime Pickings Dept. · 2 pages
Generic movie posters with fill-in-the-blanks and words provided so the reader can make their own movie posters with critic quotes.
- Violent TV Commercials · Pain in the Ads Dept. · 4 pages
If the sudden graphic violence trend of contemporary films was extended to contemporary television commercials.
- Does This Ad Look Blurred to You? · 1 pages
The text of an ad is intentionally printed out of focus to trick readers into visiting an optometrist.
- The Mad Plan for Beating TV Commercial-Breaks · Stepping Away from the Pitch Dept. · 5 pages
Various plans for doing things around the house in the space of a TV program commercial break.
- How to Read a Resort Ad · Vacational Guidance Dept. · 3 pages
Real meanings to resort ad blurbs.
- When Advertising Takes Over Magazines Completely · 2 pages
Examples of current magazines changed to have more product placement than editorial content.
- New Ad Spaces · Inside Pitch Dept. · 3 pages
For advertisers scraping the bottom of the barrel, MAD suggest some unusual places for ads in bars, hospitals, airplanes, and even prisons.
- Great Moments in Medicine · Park-David · 1 pages
Parody of Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Company advertisements.
- If Magazine Ads Spoke the Language of the Magazines · Ad-Itorial Dept. · 4 pages
Targeting advertising to the genre of magazine the ad will appear in.
- Out West · 2 pages
A man driving in the desert is menaced by a flock of vultures.
- TV Commercial Aids · Out! Damned Spot! Dept. · 3 pages
Devices designed to make television viewing more enjoyable.
- If There'd Been a Madison Ave. Down Through History · That Old Ad-Age Dept. · 4 pages
Ad campaigns based on historical items.
- Unspoken Messages in TV Commercials · Sponsor Speak with Forked Tongue Dept. · 2 pages
Footnoting dialogue in commercials to reveal hidden facts about the product.
- Advertising Space on Road Signs · 3 pages
If traffic signs had product placement add-ons.
- Recruiting Posters Through History · 3 pages
Recruitment posters, based on the famous "Uncle Sam wants you" poster from the U.S. Army, are fashioned for multiple historical military actions.
- One Fine Day While Touring Florida · 1 pages
A family of tourists visit a venue advertising alligator wrestling.
- Ads We Never Got to See · Copy Cat-astrophe Dept. · 3 pages
Examples of ads rejected because of the unintentional humor caused by their poorly worded text.
- Yellow Pages for Super-Heroes · Comic Relief Dept. · 2 pages
Telephone book advertisements altered to target super-heroes.
- Hazards of Illuminated Signs · Light Switch Dept. · 4 pages
Examples of messages that get corrupted when lights burn out on illuminated signs.
- A Mad Guide to Classified Ad Abbreviations · 2 pages
Satirical classified ad abbreviations.
- The Subtle Science of Packaging · Who's Covering Up Dept. · 6 pages
How packaging makes us satisfied with less.
- One Day Downtown · 2 pages
A man gets a karmic response for stepping on an insect.