This week I received an email containing over a dozen vintage advertisements that must have appeared in newspapers and magazines in America many years ago. A brief introduction said: "Do you remember seeing any of these ads? Can you believe there used to be such ads!" I scrolled through the images and found some of the most sexist ads I'd seen. I'm thinking: were there any protests when these ads were published? Or were they simply laughed off because they weren't meant to be taken seriously? Or am I missing something? In our world, today, ads like these would be unthinkable. There is another lot which I'll post some other time. For now check these out and if you know something, let me know.
For previous Vintage Ads, look under ‘Labels’.
For previous Vintage Ads, look under ‘Labels’.
They made me laugh, Prashant. Guess one should just take them with a pinch of salt.
ReplyDeleteI remember some TV commercials in the 1970s being worse than these print ads. The image in the Hoover ad is utterly perverse.
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder if a couple of these aren't made up. But I do know a few of them are real. Times have changed. You look now and go, wow.
ReplyDeleteI have a Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/davidcranmer/ads/ devoted to ads like these. Awful, dated, and funny as heck. I do believe some are made up though.
ReplyDeleteSomeone gave me a box of note cards with ads like these from the 50s. One of them: a young wife weeping over a ruined dinner and her husband pointing to a bottle of Schlitz and saying, "Honey, at least you didn't burn the beer." Funny (and not so funny) what used to pass as humor.
ReplyDeleteHilarious Prashant - that one for ketchup is just loaded with symbolism and may be my favourite. It is just so offensive that you think it must be a parody - instead they thought thet were just being saucy :)
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love these? They are humourous now!
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