In 1970, six years after Brother International Corporation began importing typewriters to the United States, they had to tell the American public that they were not involved in any way with a sham company called "Timber Wolf Sales," who were advertising Brother portable typewriters in many national magazines for very low prices. Timber Wolf Sales consisted of three con artists, who had previously sold "land" in Canada under the name Timber Wolf Trails. Like the typewriters, the land did not exist. (For more information, check out this link: Newspaper Article )
None of the people who had ordered typewriters from Timber Wolf Sales received their typewriters. Many of them wrote to Brother International Corporation , who then informed the Council of Better Business Bureaus that Timber Wolf Sales only bought four sample typewriters, and that Brother was not consulted about Timber Wolf Sales' advertisements.
Timber Wolf Sales' advertisement is pictured below.:
If you look closely at the lettering that says "Timber Wolf Sales, you will see that it is not even close to lined-up. Also, notice that their mailing address is a P.O. Box in International Falls, Minnesota. This is visible on the upper right corner--notice that the P.O. Box is written on tape. It should be noted that the images are from a Brother International catalog. Brother International did not authorize the use of these images. (Image courtesy of the Seattle Public Library)
Below: An advertisement for Timber Wolf Trails, 1970. Like the typewriters, the land did not exist. I should also point out that Ontario is in the Northeast of Canada--not the Northwest. Looking at this advertisement, it is clear which of their operations had a higher priority--the lettering is well-lined-up, and it looks like they spent time creating this one. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, $12,750 in 1970 had the same buying power as $77,150.97 does in 2014.
