A 1943 ad for Macy's crudely imitates The New Yorker's well-known cartoon style without employing any of its well-known cartoonists. A wife awakens to her bedside alarm which is set for six a.m. Her husband turns his head towards her and says, "Can't they open Macy's in the morning without your help?" The advertising copy informs us that Macy's opens at 9:30. The husband, we don't need to know, is named Egmont. His value-hunting wife is just "The little woman."
The New Yorker had a reputation for keeping its advertising and editorial content completely separate, and usually it did. Six years later, whether it was done knowingly or not (almost certainly it was not), cartoonist William Steig revisited the ad's scenario in his own published New Yorker cartoon. Steig demonstrated why Macy's should have hired him on the first go round.
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"Macy's is closed!" William Steig The New Yorker, June 4, 1949, p. 22 |
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| A floral spot by Suba, a cartoon by Alan Dunn, and an advertisement from Macy's |
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| Cartoons by William Steig and Alan Dunn |
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| Alan Dunn The New Yorker, June 4, 1949, p. 23 |
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Floral spot drawing Susanne Suba The New Yorker, January 16, 1943, p. 46 |
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"I have a message for you here somewhere, sir, from field headquarters." Alan Dunn The New Yorker, January 16, 1943, p. 46 |
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