Creepy vintage ad: ‘I hope the lead I’m mining will be used in your paint’

Social news site Reddit ran a vintage mining ad showing a happy miner extolling the virtues of lead.

‘I hope the lead I’m mining will be used in your paint’ is the tagline. (Coincidentally, the miner in the ad bears an uncanny resemblance to Daniel Day Lewis in the movie There Will Be Blood, one of our top movies about mining.)

The submission by tailleur received 1,528 upvotes and appeared on Reddit’s frontpage.

It was unclear what newspaper or magazine the ad appeared, or the date the ad was published.

Lead was popular paint additive up until the 1970s. It was added to paint to increase its durability and speed drying, but the vapours were found to be toxic. Children were especially susceptible to harm from lead, which caused stunted growth and damage to the nervous system.

Lead was largely banned in household paint in 1978.