The beautifully rendered Coca-Cola ad, photographed on the title card by William Stage on Tremont Street in the South End in 1983, has faded since then, though it is still somewhat detectable. Most of the color has leached out. The Coca-Cola script logo is still pretty much the same as it was designed when the company was founded by Dr. John Pemberton in 1886. The coca plant was originally used in the formula, but was removed long ago.

The old Pepsi-Cola script logo can still barely be made out on this South End painted ad near Tremont Street. Pepsi was formulated by chemist Caleb Bradham in 1898 and this script logo first appeared in 1908. The drink was conceived to help treat stomach distress, or dyspepsia. The logo was largely discontinued by the 1960s, when the company rolled out its "Pepsi Generation" campaign. Despite its best efforts, Pepsi has never been able to wrest the #1 cola in sales title away from Coca-Cola.

LEFT: Any Quaker Oats wall ad has plenty of design potential. After all the letter "Q" doesn't often get a chance to shine. This decades-old ad on Cambridge and Grove streets in Beacon Hill takes full advantage of the company's rare initial. Quaker Oats was formed from the combination of three milling companies in 1901, with the name coming from one of them, the Quaker Milling Company of Ravenna, Ohio, which had originated in 1877.

RIGHT: This one in the old Blackstone Block just south of the North End evinces the removal of a top floor or two, since the Y'S and the pointing finger are all that's left of the ad.

Just Suits, Quincy Court off North Street, across the way from Paul Revere's place.

This South End ad for clothing donations to the Society of St. Vincent DePaul on Washington Street is left over from the days when the street was shadowed by an elevated train. The Orange Line was placed in a nearby open cut in the mid-1980s and the rattletrap was torn down. The ad was easily visible by commuters on the el.

Photographed: December 2002 except where noted; written: August 2005