While the occasional anachronism is to be expected, it is best to try to stay as accurate as possible. If you need a quick idea of which products your character might use, and which he or she would never have heard of, scan this list, or run a search through your browser's menu bar and try to find the product in question. Or if you have a question you can always get in touch with me (Julie, or Libby) and I'll tell you if I know the answer or not. (Probably not, granted, but it's worth a shot!)
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| Automobiles | Seat belts or other restraints, car radios |
| Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages | Plastic or vinyl band-aids |
| Bread products like Thomas' English Muffins and Wonder Bread, and electric toasters | Bisquick |
| Campbell's Condensed Soup, and other canned soups, as well as canned fruits | Frozen vegetables |
| Candies like Tootsie Rolls, Baby Ruth, Oh Henry!, Hershey bars (with or without almonds), Hershey's Kisses, Clark Bars, Good and Plenty, Necco candies (including conversation hearts), candy corn, jelly beans, Lifesavers, and even the Cherry Mash. Candy bars tended to cost about a nickel, and many were larger than standard bars are today... | M & M's, Jelly Belly jelly beans |
| Cereals such as Post Grape Nuts, Post Toasties, Wheaties (PDF file),"Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes" (and Rice Krispies hit the market in 1928) | Cheerios; Cornelius the Corn Flakes rooster; Snap, Crackle, and Pop |
| Chewing gums like Dentyne, Tutti-Fruiti, Doublemint, and Black Jack (gum history) | Bubble gum |
| Cleaning products such as Ivory and Camay soaps and S.O.S. pads, as well as Palmolive | Tide or other detergents (people washed their clothes with soap flakes) |
| Condiments like mustard, tobasco sauce, margarine (though butter was more common), Heinz Ketchup (and horseradish), mayonaisse, Thousand Island dressing, and peanut butter | Crunchy peanut butter, Miracle Whip, ranch dressing |
| Cookies like Barnum's Animal Crackers, Fig Newtons, Mallomars, fortune cookies, and Oreos. (Oreos were larger than ours are today.) | "Toll-house" (chocolate chip) cookies; instant cake mixes |
| Cosmetics like rouge, powder, eyeliner, and lipstick, as well as deodorants (in powder or cream form)--nail polish was available, probably in limited colors, and the "moon" of the nail was always left unpainted (and sometimes the tip) | Sunscreen lotion, roll-on deodorants |
| Crackers like Premium Saltine Crackers (originally called "Premium Sodas"), Triscuit | Ritz crackers |
| Crossword puzzles | Monopoly, Scrabble |
| Dixie cups, drinking fountains | Antibiotics |
| Foods like Fettuccine Alfredo and the Caesar salad | Corn dogs |
| Fountain pens | Ballpoint pens |
| Gillette safety razors | Effective electric razors |
| Ice cream and treats such as banana splits, ice cream cones, and Good Humor bars, and Popsicles | Cool Whip |
| Kewpie dolls, plush animals, "carnival glass", Raggedy Ann/Andy dolls | Barbie dolls |
| 'Lead' pencils (and erasers on their ends, and even pencil sharpeners) | Mechanical pencils as we know them |
| Magazines like The Reader's Digest and The National Geographic Magazine | Life Magazine |
| Masking tape | Transparent tape |
| Mimeograph machines | Xerox machines |
| Self-service grocery stores, and brown paper grocery bags | Grocery carts |
| Skywriting | Barnstorming (was effectively outlawed in 1926) |
| Snacks like potato chips, Cracker Jack (with prizes!), and Jell-O | Frito-Lay chips |
| Sodas like Hires Root Beer (which also sold home-production kits), Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola (which had a distinctive curve-shaped bottle) | Canned soda, diet soda, bottled water |
| Toilet paper and paper towels, both in roll form | Rural areas often had neither indoor plumbing nor toilet paper at this time |
| Vaseline and Vick's VapoRub | Carmex |
| Wristwatches (men's might be called "strap watches") and pocketwatches | Battery-powered watches |
Much of this information was taken from the Reader's Digest book Discovering America's Past (copyright 1993) and The Food Timeline, with some more info from Prohibition, Refrigerators Put Freeze on the '20s