Ten ’70s Wacky Packages Cards That Hit Very Different Now

We all know that pop culture in the ’70s and ’80s was a little less… supervised. Kind of like our time outside. I mean, «It’s 11 o’clock… do you know where your children are?» So with little parental controls, no «technology» filters, and if you think about it, very little stuff made exclusively for kids, if it was on TV or playing at the movies, you probably saw it.

And this is exactly what makes this aspect of nostalgia so fun, and even surprising. When you revisit the things we loved as kids, you start to realize just how eyebrow-raising some of it actually was.

And that brings us to … Wacky Packages. Oh boy!

Those stickers with the gum that you ran to the corner store to grab, then traded for your friends, were super valuable on the playground and at the picnic table in the backyard. These weren’t baseball cards (which us artsy nerds found boring in comparison). These were Mad Magazine-style parodies of the booming consumer culture at the time, ranging from cleaning products and junk food to pet care and even cigarettes. Imagine!

READ MORE: 15 Toys That Could Have Killed Us in the ’70s and ’80s

Originally released by Topps in 1967 and created in part by Art Spiegelman, Wacky Packages didn’t just poke fun; they went straight for it. Funnily enough, there was controversy, but it wasn’t brought on by the cutting humor and adult nature of the cards. Instead, it was the companies being parodied that sparked lawsuits, with some cards even being pulled from shelves.

What really stands out now isn’t just the parody — it’s the themes.

Digging through the archives, I found some genuinely shocking cards I had completely forgotten about, and when you stop and think, they probably would have caused quite a stir today. ’70s kids might have caught some references to bigger cultural conversations from TV shows like Maude and All in the Family, or maybe at the dinner table, but these cards? They went there, even referencing things like feminism, substance abuse, and geo-political issues — all tucked inside something sold to kids with a stick of gum.

It’s bizarre. It’s hilarious. And it’s incredible.

So I pulled together 10 Wacky Packages cards from the ’70s that might surprise you.