Ad Archive

A Compendium of Our Advertising Through the Years

June 29, 2026:

"The Head of a Fool"

Author:
J. Agre

Concept:
We need to look to English history to explain this caption:

Facing a desperate shortage of silver coins in 1797, the Bank of England re-issued altered foreign coins from its reserves. Some half a million pounds worth of Charles IV Spanish ‘dollars’ were counter-stamped with a small oval engraving of George III.

The re-issued coins, with a value of 4 shillings and 9 pence, were ridiculed and scorned. “Two Kings’ heads and not worth a crown” was one phrase used to describe them. (A ‘crown’ in this context meant 5 shillings). A more creative nickname was “The head of a fool stamped on the neck of an ass”.

Which we truncated here to squeeze it into this ad featuring this lovely Choice AU example.

Captions that didn’t make the cut:
We did consider using the full quote, but that would have extended the caption to two lines which we find to be less elegant. So we did not do it.

Click on any ad for a behind the scenes look at the creative process

"Treaty Treat"
June 15, 2026