Dayalets’ Hellish Vitamin Mascots Intended to Promote a Healthy Diet From the 1950s

Nothing really prepares you for the Dayalets. As you can gather from the cover, they were vitamins, but they were so much more: they were vitamins suitable for framing. Also they were glimpses into the hideous, ironic permutations that awaits people who have inaccurate vitamin consumption habits. Steel yourself – and keep in mind these are designed to hang in doctor’s offices and make patients WANT Dayalets. Most people would want something else, like an exorcism.

In the 1950s, Abbott Labs used food, candy and cigarettes to create a series of horrifying advertising mascots. They designed the advertisements to be hung in doctors’ offices and inspire patients to take Dayalets. Dayalets, aka “the people’s medicine,” were thought to right all the wrongs of a meat-and-potatoes diet and heavy nicotine regimen, as was popular at the time.

Sometime thereafter, Abbott Labs published the color reproductions “suitable for framing.” They were presented in response to the many requests they have received from physician since these advertisements first appeared in Abbott advertising.