Well, men aren't coming out of this set of letters very well, are they? Of course, we do have to read these letters with the understanding that leaving your husband in 1969 was a very different prospect to what it is today, although it's interesting that the Divorce Reform Act was passed in the UK in 1969, which introduced 'no fault' divorces. The poor woman in the lead letter clearly seems to have a husband who cares more about his cock than his wife's mental health, seeing as her first mental breakdown didn't stop him straying again.

"You can't feed a family without breaking eggs." I think vegan families may beg to differ, but I chose this ad because I thought it was visually striking, as well as being amusing in itself. I miss all these marketing boards for food staples; the leek pie ad was placed by the Flour Marketing Board.

Oh my. Don't you just love the sorts of adverts which patronise women horribly, whilst being under the impression they're doing them a favour? Reading this advert, you wouldn't have thought that women in the UK have actually been driving since around WW1, although, to be fair, I do remember my mother telling me that 'women didn't drive' when she was growing up. I'm particularly tickled by the idea that, because housewives were coping with more complex domestic gadgets by 1969, they were better equipped to tackle a big scary car. You can't fault the moral "a washing machine today - the family chauffeur tomorrow!", either. Oh. Sorry. You can.

I'd love one...oh.

Ah, now this is another lovely advert, not only because the little girl is gorgeous, but because the shot of her is so beautifully framed as well. Her tears look a bit like snot, sadly, but this doesn't affect the arresting effect of the advert! Look at that FACE. Don't you want to give her a packet of Cadbury's Buttons to cheer her up?

No, I don't have any smart comments about this one, because I think it's rather lovely. It's one of the few adverts in my Fifties Woman's Weeklies that don't make me angry, depressed or confused.

Presumably the whooping cough vaccine was in its early days, as I don't think a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to it would be considered necessary nowadays, a tribute to just how successful the vaccination programme has been. My mother, born in the early 1940s, survived whooping cough as a baby, which made her fortunate, but I was even more fortunate not to have to face the risk.

Personally, I count myself lucky that I live in an age where I can get lemon barley without having to open a tin, but I have to admit that I wouldn't have known how lucky I was if it wasn't for this advert. Milk and barley?! I wouldn't be surprised if that had caused a few relapses...

Just look at Evelyn. Now that's a face you can trust, and her sensible advice bears that out, especially to the silly woman being used as a doormat, and the wife too afraid to tell her husband that she's not enjoying sex. It's reassuring to know that even as long ago as 1967, this sort of help was available and readily advocated by womans' magazines.

Ah, Guinness used to love making health claims for its product over here, but were stopped a few years ago. Odd how many ads in my magazine collection are for various 'nerve' tonics and other antidotes to 'feeling down/overwhelmed', etc. It certainly brings context to the Rolling Stones' hit 'Mother's Little Helper'. Lovely ad design, though!

Yes, no wonder John grumbled, when he was used to women looking after him all day from birth. Why would he understand how tiring housework actually was pre-white goods, when he never had to do it? Luckily, Lucozade is marketed as a sports energy drink nowadays: for BOTH sexes.

Goodness me, and I thought Cosmo was bad. 'How to be liked by everybody' is very pre-feminist, isn't it?

"You wear 'em. Then you chuck 'em away." Hmm. I had heard that disposable knickers were available in the '60s, and the reference that this ad makes to 'some chuckaway panties' hints that this was quite a fashionable thing back then, if not totally reliable. The 80% rayon that these are made of may well have prevented the pants from disintegrating, but I'd put money on them causing a fair amount of sweating 'down there' by the end of the day, even in the middle of winter. Lovely.

Seriously now, is this woman actually married? Any woman knows that men don't get hints, so her advice to 'Disgruntled' is just bizarre. What she really wants to say, of course, is "I had to put up with it, so you can, you slutty mare". Instead, she opts for a subtle suggestion that hubby is going out because his wife has let herself go and he can't bear to look at her anymore. Pre-feminism isn't pretty, boys and girls.

Simply because I LOVE the design of both the advert and the product!

Hm. I don't have a problem with giving children something to ease symptoms of illness at all, but I don't think this type of emotional blackmail is quite on, do you?

Snigger. Of course, I was immediately reminded of this.

My only comment is: in those days, they actually had to make the effort to haul the cooker on there.

Here's another agony aunt: this time, Mary Grant of Woman's Own. Obviously there's around 10 years difference between this page and Mary Marryat's, but there's a definite difference in tone with Mary Grant, and I like her a lot more. Her advice to the poor woman being hounded to have more children (I wonder if her husband would have the same opinion if he had to carry the child and give birth to it?) is sound, with her advice to just about everyone else on the page also fair and level-headed. In the context of the time, her advice to the last writer does make sense, although nowadays, thankfully, the writer would be freer to leave a man who was treating her badly and to sort out her life. In 1967, it was very difficult indeed to be a single mother.