Early ads show times have changed
Oh, the difference a half century or so can make.
A friend of mine recently e-mailed me a grouping of old magazine advertisements from the 1950s or earlier. Some are just laughable, but it was astounding to see what passed as fashionable and acceptable back then, especially regarding women.
In a Chase & Sanborn Coffee ad, there’s a photo of a well-dressed gentleman with his wife held over his lap against her will. His hand is raised with the obvious intention of spanking her, and the headline declares: “If your husband ever finds out you’re not ‘store-testing’ for fresher coffee...if he discovers you’re still taking chances on getting flat, stale coffee ... woe be onto you!”
Can you believe there was a time when it was acceptable behavior to beat your wife over stale coffee?
The next ad is even worse. Big bold letters ask: “Is it always illegal to KILL a woman?” There’s a sketch of an exasperated man gesturing toward an arrogant-looking woman standing by a postage meter machine.
I’m not sure what they’re trying to convey here; probably that the woman is a superior office worker and the man can’t figure out how to work the machine. Maybe it was meant to be funny, or more likely, maybe you had to live back then to understand it.
In what looks like a magazine piece from the 1960s, an ad for Tipalet cigarettes tells readers “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.” And there’s a photo of the man blowing smoke in the woman’s face.
Even during the 1970s, when the women’s liberation movement was well in force, an early ad for a computer shows a leggy woman showing off the now-ancient machine. I can tell this one is from the ’70s because everything is gold, orange and avocado green. “This is a computer?” the ad asks, with the reply below: “You bet your sweet Telex operator it is.”
An ad for a Kenwood Chef kitchen mixer declares “The Chef does everything but cook — that’s what wives are for!”
Other ads showed how acceptable smoking was back in the day. There’s one with Santa Claus puffing on a Lucky Strike, and another stating that “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”
America even used to push Coca-Cola and 7-Up as drinks for babies. In an ad that shows a baby and a bottle of Coke, the soda company notes that “For a better start in life start COLA earlier!”
It goes on to explain that kids need to start drinking Coke as soon as possible because “laboratory tests over the last few years have proven that babies who start drinking soda during that early formative period have a much higher chance of gaining acceptance and ‘fitting in’ during those awkward pre-teen and teen years.”
So, their teeth may be rotted out, but they’ll be popular.
It makes me wonder if advertisements we see as normal today will have the same effect on our future generations. Will today’s promotions for botox and plastic surgery be ludicrous to our great-great grandchildren who will have figured out the secret to eternal youth by then?
Maybe future generations will scoff at our Bud Light commercials or ads for diamond jewelry. Maybe the beef industry’s mantra, “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner,” will seem ludicrous to our successors because meat will be a thing of the past.
Only time will tell.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com