20th September 2009 / 8 Comments
Woman's Own /
20th June 1969
Well, I had to do the tampon ads, didn’t I? All discussions of sanitary products reminds me of my mother, who would have started mensurating in the mid-1950s, telling me that she used rags for the first few years, because her family could afford nothing else, and her joy at finally being able to afford a sanitary belt, a contraption that looked horrifying to my teenage self in the early 1990s. I never got on well with sanitary towels, so when the Tampax woman visited our school to explain the use of the product, I embraced them with open arms. Both my mother and my friend’s mother remained suspicious of tampons until their menopause, so it’s probable that these ads were fairly ground-breaking back in 1969.
Tags: blatant sexism, periods, retail, social history, Tampax
20th September 2009 / 3 Comments
Woman's Own /
20th July 1969
Women are delicate little flowers, so thank goodness Phensic came along to help with ‘a woman’s headache’. This reminds me strongly of the headache advert scene set in Hell in the Young Ones‘ ‘Nasty’ episode: “She’s talking about periods.” The claims to soothe the nerves and to lift depression seems like a recipe for painkiller addition to me. Unsurprisingly, painkiller adverts don’t make such exaggerated claims any more!
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, blatant sexism, dodgy advice, health, retail, social history
20th September 2009 / 8 Comments
Woman's Own /
20th June 1969
Obviously there’s a lot of fun to be had when looking at old advertisements, but occasionally an ad will slap you round the face with a sign saying ‘THIS IS THE FUTURE’. This ad from Midland Bank is quite staggering for someone of my age, as it’s speaking to my mother’s generation, and is absolutely right; the computer age did revolutionise banking. It’s quite likely that my mother wouldn’t have had a bank account at that point, yet I remember clearly opening my Natwest Piggy Bank account at the age of around 5 in the mid-1980s. Yes, I did collect all the pigs. No, I don’t have them all now. Yes, I know how much they’re worth now. Bah.
It’s rare to find an ad so clearly signposting the future, but it’s thrilling when you do.
Tags: banking, Midland Bank, retail, social history
20th September 2009 / 3 Comments
Being a keen student of social history, I jumped at the chance to pick up a large box of women’s magazines from the 1960s, and this site is the result. The magazines have much that is amusing and interesting, but I especially want to focus on the advertising, and to reflect on what has changed, what hasn’t, and to highlight the odd advert that really highlights a change happening in society at that time. Comments are very welcome, and if you have any contributions of your own, I’d love to hear from you. Enjoy!