Could it really be Monday? How strange ...

Could it really be Monday? How strange ... we're meeting again in the Hagley Vault today to bring you this ca. 1973 advertisement for newspaper advertising. The "big frog in small towns" ad campaign was created by the Philadelphia advertising firm Gray & Rogers for the 'Grit', a weekly newspaper serving small, rural markets. The ads ran in publishing trade magazines during the 1970s.

To create art for the campaign, Gray & Rogers hired freelance artists to bring the frogs to life, many of whom went on to become notable artists and illustrators. These included, among others, Philadelphia children's book illustrator Charles Santore, pop surrealist Todd Schorr, and science fiction specialist Don Ivan Punchatz, who drew the poster for the first Star Wars film. In 1980, the campaign won best of show in the Addy Awards competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Club of Advertising Women out of 350 entries.

This item and other advertisements from the "big frog in small towns" ad campaign can be found in Hagley Library's Arthur Benning collection of Gray and Rogers, Inc. advertising (Accession 2001.233) and viewed online in our Digital Archives.