Patriotic Ads

Every issue of Billboard during WW2 was filled with advertisements and messages from most major coin-op manufacturers containing patriotic slogans and messages of encouragement. In my opinion the best ad, seen in every issue was the one by D. Gottlieb and Co.: There is no substitute for Quality. Quality products will last for the duration. That's all it said. Very understated and very Gottlieb. Gives you a comfy warm fuzzy feeling about Gottlieb products.

In early 1943, a Gottlieb release said that 95 per cent of the company's production was war related, and that 23 of their employees were serving in the armed forces.

Bally

Bally was the most prominent of the pinball manufacturers in maintaining a patriotic presence in print. Every edition of Billboard seemed to have a large Bally ad on the last inside page, as witnessed below. Notice how the third ad encourages the folks back home to use "V-Mail", with a slightly different meaning than is used today.

If you read enough of these ads, it appears that the most patriotic folks in America were probably the Bally marketing types who wrote the text for them.

"Bally" engineers and workers are proving daily that their skill - developed in peace-time production of coin-operated games and venders - is a valuable asset to America in time of war. And "Bally's" performance in war production is a forecast of "Bally's" performance in the victorious future. Lion Manufacturing Corporation, Chicago, manufacturers of "Bally" games and venders.

Several other ads basically repeated that epithet, with progress reports on further Army-Navy production awards.

American fighters, men of the free, fun-loving breed for whom "Bally" games were built, are now blasting the enemy out of the sea and the sky with the aid of war products built by the men and women of the "Bally" plant, men and women, who, when victory is won, will return to the happy task of building "Bally" games for free, fun-loving America...[world's longest sentence continues for a few more paragraphs].

Ballyhoo to bullets! Those three words tell the story of Bally - and all American industry.

Chicago Coin

Chicago Coin didn't run that many ads, but when they did, they always seemed to be patriotic.

The text of this ad made the standard "rah rah" statements but followed with this teaser: When the story can be told... you'll be amazed to learn that we produced one of the most delicate vital war items. What did they make???

Other Ads

OUR PLANT IS DEDICATED TO WAR WORK today and will be for the duration. But what we've learned in new ideas for uses of war is going to come in mighty handy later on. Keep your eye on EXHIBIT for the best, as always, in COIN OPERATED AMUSEMENT EQUIPMENT. These will be available when peace day dawns.

View more patriotic ads from other coin-op venders.