The insult that made a man out of "Mac"

What's the ad for?

Bodybuilding books by Charles Atlas
Year
1972

Spotted in...

The Scoop

So apparently the story featured in the ad is based on the life of Angelo Siciliano, a young Italian immigrant. After getting sand kicked in his face, probably over at Coney Island, he decided that enough was enough. No more being a 97 pound weakling. So Siciliano joined the YMCA and became obsessed with working out. He won competitions and in 1921 was named  "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man". He then got a job as the strongman in the Coney Island Circus Side Show. The year after that he changed his name to...Charles Atlas. I bet you didn't see that coming.

Altas told "Half Alive" scrawny teenagers that they didn't have to toil away in the YMCA gym to become the next  Angelo Siciliano. All they had to do was buy his book and perform "15 minutes a day of pleasant practice- in the privacy of your own room". I'd have to guess but I think they were already doing that pleasant practice everyday in the privacy of their own room. Probably involved more pulling than lifting.