20 Bonkers Classic Comics Adverts You Won't Believe
13. X-Ray Specs
This one is like a perfect confluence of comic book tropes: sci-fi technology that doesn't actually exist in the real world, and sexism that unfortunately does (and is encouraged, apparently). There were countless variations on the X-Ray Specs ad over the decades, becoming a part of pop culture even to people who didn't know they originated on the back pages of comics. To be fair, they say up front that the whole thing's an illusion, but even that's stretching it. What the glasses actually were, were some cheap plastic specs that made your vision kind of blurry. Which is basically x-ray vision, right?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
