Poon Tang Aftershave (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Baker, John]

        Actually, it's on page 5.  This is a mail order advertisement for Poon Tang After Shave.  There is an adjacent advertisement, by the same advertiser:  "Would you like to try a little poon tang 2' X 3' day-glo poster $1.00 each."  "Poon tang" is in a faux Oriental font, and the poster shows a scantily clad woman who appears to be an Asian prostitute.  There is a mail order coupon, which says, "Please rush me your poon tang poster.  I have heard many good things about poontang and the poster.  Now I want to see it myself.  Please hurry!"  All of the quoted text is in all caps, so I don't really know what capitalization was intended.

        This seems to indicate that the advertiser, at least, associated "poontang" (or "poon tang") with Asian prostitution.  It also suggests that, by 1970, the advertiser expected at least a substantial part of the readership to know what "poontang" meant.  Of course, there is no comparison between the relative freedom from censorship available to a college newspaper in 1970 and the intense scrutiny focused on a 1955 comic book publisher who was accused of corrupting the young.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 1:22 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Poon Tang Aftershave (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


See also p 2 (bottom left corner) of this issue of the Univ of
Cincinnati News Record:

http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/newsrecord/1970/1970_02_20.pdf



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Douglas G. Wilson
> Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 8:45 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Poon Tang Aftershave
>
> ----------
>
> _Philadelphia [PA] Tribune_, 18 April 1970: p. 24:
>
> [advertisement]
>
> <<POON TANG is for Men ... All Men -- All the Time! / .... / POON TANG
> AFTER SHAVE is new ... AND FOR REAL AND FOR YOU! / ....>>
>
>
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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