Back when these advertisements were first released there was nothing wrong with them. It’s highly likely not one eyelash was batted in their general direction. However, with time (and as society’s sensitivities have changed) these television, newspaper and magazine ads would never fly today.
From sexist to racist with a not-so-respectable helping of discrimination on the side, what follows are some of the advertisements of the 1950s and ’60s that would be regarded as ‘too offensive’ by today’s standards. Do you remember any of these?
A sign of the times perhaps? A time when a flat tyre could only be changed if you were a man. Heaven forbid this poor damsel in distress dirty her dress, chip a nail or get a hair out of place even contemplating changing her flat tyre. She walks alone, in the dark, to a payphone in the middle of nowhere to find a man that can help. So much about that sentence is mind blowing today!
This is an advertisement from 1956 promoting the ‘Chubbettes’ style of clothing. Apparently, parents whose daughters weren’t as slender as the other girls in the playgrounds were encouraged to shop here. You might especially love the line “Is she on the plump side?” like it was offensive for women to come in all different shapes and sizes. True, there are still a number of advertisements being published today that shame women for the way they look, but maybe it’s not as obvious as the Chubbettes ad.
When you’re having a bad hair day you might wear a hat or put it up in a tidy bun, but not so in 1953. If this ad from hair products manufacturer Charles Antell is to be believed, the only solution to a bad hair day back then was to take your own life. The lady in this ad is having such a hard time getting her locks ‘just right’ she’s got to pick one of three ways to off herself. Thankfully Formula 9 and Shampoo was there to save her!
By today’s standard this 1960 television commercial for Kool-Aid, where the Kool-Aid Kids visit Japan would be nothing short of politically incorrect.
This one goes all the way back to 1890 when Dr Batty (that he was) claims to have invented some clever cigarettes that provided the smoker with temporary relief from asthma and ‘all diseases of the throat’. It would certainly be frowned upon today to encourage any asthmatic to take up smoking, but at the time these cigarettes were universally recommended by most eminent physicians and smoking was a major treatment of asthma right up until the 1950s.
Menswear brand, Cricketeer, was pretty popular in the ’70s and ’80s and the company had some rather interesting advertising. Take this advert that gives you ’23 ways to avoid marrying the girl’. The list includes gems such as ‘At a really passionate moment, call her “Mommy”‘, ‘Plant a “how to avoid wetting your bed,” book in your apartment’, ‘Say that you’re 99% sure that your mother will allow you to marry her’, and finally ‘Insist that she walk three paces behind you’.
There was such a thing as ‘husband-pleasing coffee’ back in the ’60s … At least there was if this ad was to be believed. The story goes that a woman serves her husband a cup of coffee so bad he groans about it and then insults his wife, often mentioning that he could get a better coffee elsewhere. Determined to do right by her man, the woman races off to the local grocery store and discusses her plight with Mr McGregor. At McGregor’s suggestion the woman buys a can of Folgers and returns home. The next time she brews a cup of coffee for her husband it gets the thumbs up … So much so that he then gushes thankfully at her.
Some of the advertisements were for famous brands like Volkswagen, Schlitz or Buick. In fact the Volkswagen ad above has a particularly nostalgic feeling because it demonstrates just how reluctant men were to see women as their equal.
Save your money gents! You don’t need to buy a girl flowers or chocolates or even treat her reasonably well. Nope! Thanks to the Tipalet ad in the ’60s, all men really had to do was blow hot smoke in a woman’s face to get her to come home with him. Who said romance was dead! Ugh…