Tobacco and cigarette ads were truly wild back in the day. This 1970s ad shows a regular ole Joe surrounded by a group of beautiful women vying for his affection. Why? Because he buys a specific brand of cigars, duh! Even though this ad ran in “Playboy,” it’s still pretty sexist by today’s standards.
Although we don’t see ads that are this obvious in modern marketing, companies still rely on the same trope of the “every man” wooing the ladies with material possessions. Somehow, the narrative of an average guy winning the heart of an above-average woman is still popular. Why does that still work? There’s probably some psychology behind that.
Gender Roles Were Everywhere
This ad may have made sense back in the 1950s, but we don’t really get it from a modern perspective. What we do know is that companies loved to play up gender roles in the 50s. For whatever reason, this ad argues that if a woman buys glass bottles, her husband will love her more. Huh?
Times have changed, which is probably why this ad doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. However, it’s pretty obvious that this ad is sexist and preys on women’s insecurities and fears. Of course, everyone wants to be loved and validated by their partners. But is buying brown glass bottles really the only way to achieve those things? We’re not buying it.
A Terrifying Work Environment
We see about 50 HR violations in this single image from this 1972 “Life Magazine” ad. Granted, work environments were a tad bit different for women back then, but it’s wild to think that the 70s were only five decades ago. There are a lot of assumptions being made in this ad, so let’s go through them.
First off, this is an ad for an Olivetti typewriter. The company made this ad knowing that people would assume the woman in the center was an administrative assistant. Of course the only woman in the office is the secretary. Why would she hold any other title? Also, this add is assuming that this woman loves having five men tower over her while she’s trying to get her work done. What happened to personal space?
Housework So Simple, Even Dad Can Do It
Believe it or not, sexism and misogyny harm men as well as women. This ad from the 1940s shows a father triumphantly doing his family’s laundry while his wife is in bed and on the mend from some unspecified ailment. The thing is, laundry isn’t really that hard to learn.
The average American family was pretty traditional back then, with men going to work outside the home while women managed the household and children. Even though most of us know how to do basic household tasks nowadays, men never bothered to learn how to cook, clean, or do laundry on their own. This ad further reinforced the idea that men simply couldn’t teach themselves to do basic chores, which is kind of sad in a way.
The 1800s Loved Problematic Illustrations
We would like to apologize if this vintage ad gives you nightmares. We never wanted to see this terrifying illustration of a pig with a man-child’s head, but here we are. This weird and surreal ad is for a chill tonic, which was medicine for adults and children who had malaria, fevers, and any other ailment that caused the chills.
Apparently, taking this chill tonic was also a good way to gain weight. We’re not exactly sure how because the connection to chill tonic and weight gain seems dubious at best. We would never see an ad like this today, especially because of the language used. The phrase “fat as pigs” is definitely not politically or socially correct these days (thankfully).