The Promise: This was a classic and it spoke directly to us pencil-neck geeks reading the comics with a strip called 'The Insult that Made a Man Out of Mac!' about a guy who gets pushed around by a bully at the beach and after reading Charles Atlas's book gets buff, takes his revenge and gets the girl. The ad hits us right in the heart with, "Are you fed up with the huskies walking away with the best of everything? Sick and tired of being soft, frail, skinny or flabby? -- ONLY HALF ALIVE?" Gee Charles, tell us how you really feel. Anyway, if you wanted to build muscle like the guy in the comic, you just had to send away for Charles Atlas's "Dynamic Tension" system. No weights, springs or pulleys and only 15 minutes a day.

The Truth: "Dynamic Tension" relied on isometrics, which is still used today, but all you really got in the mail was a giant rubber band or elastic cord and an exercise guide. It worked, but it would take too many pulls to ever get you to becoming the muscle-bound Mac from the ad. Most of Atlas's "30 million students around the world" gave up before they ever got even close to a six-pack.