Oddity in Melamine : German Newspaper Advertising Ashtray Hall of Shame

DawnAtTheMarket is offering this at a bargain price of $16.

I am sure this was an advertising premium, possibly handed out to employees or the public to encourage readership in the paper the,  "neumarkter nachrichten". I first suspected this may be referring to the pretty village of Newmarkt, Bavaria, Germany but the small region only has less than 40,000 people it seemed odd to me at one time they were handing out advertising premiums to gain readership to their local paper.  I thought no....it can't be....

Well it must have worked. That small paper is a highly respected paper now and has it's own website thanks to the glory of the Internet and no doubt loyal readers from it's ashtrays it gave out decades ago. After all, the bottom of the ashtray reads die komplette information, (complete information!)



I suppose the original thinking was, enjoy a "cig" and read our paper!  Call me a cynic when it comes to encouraging people to snuff out a hot butt on someone's face but that just gives me the creeps.  So, I'm adding this to the Melmac Hall of Shame.  Still a good deal and a RARE piece to add to your melmac collection at the price of only $16. Go buy this thing NOW please!

UPDATE:  IDENTIFICATION Thanks to

madpiano said...

Haha - I am from Bavaria and not even too far from Neumarkt. We mainly read local papers in Germany, there are only a couple of nationals, this one is quite a big one as it covers quite a large region. I remember those ashtrays, they weren't given to readers or staff, they were given to restaurants and cafes. It's been a long time ago though. I didn't like these much when I was working as a waitress, they were too big and left no room on the table for the beer!!