I see we've got the old 'indulge your sulky husband' advice again, but Clare's probably right about the cause, so I would have advised a good chat after dinner myself. However, the real interest lies in some of the other letters here. The woman who hasn't told her daughter who her real father is because of shame over the divorce is a sad case, and although I'm not sure what Clare means by 'legal difficulties', the daughter clearly has a right to know. The poor woman who's not been able to tell her husband about her problems with sex is a real sign of the times, but it's reassuring that Clare tells her that help is readily available, and I can't, thankfully, imagine a parent reacting to a blind boyfriend in the same manner nowadays as the letter writer's mother here.

Oh, this ice cream looks *great*. 3 big helpings for only 1/6, too! That's only 7.5 new pence! *consults currency converter* Oh.

There's nothing wrong with the main article here, but a couple of the questions here throw up some real facepalm moments. Firstly, there's the woman who not only thinks cancer is an infectious disease, but also hasn't bothered to ask her OWN MOTHER what's wrong with her, and then there's the poor girl who's convinced that she's miraculously got VD without any sexual contact.

Blimey, she really isn't wearing anything under that negligee, is she? Unfortunately, brushed nylon rather reminds me of the Deptford Draylons ad parody in 'Smashie and Nicey: The End of an Era'. Anyway, for those who are interested, 5 guineas (gns) equals 105 shillings, which makes this offer nearly half price. According to this currency converter, this equals to around £65 in today's prices. For brushed nylon? What a rip off!

Oh dear. I'm pretty sure Mary meant well, but advising a worn-out and demotivated young mother to expend even more energy trying to keep her spoilt brat of a husband happy? Sounds like a sure-fire recipe for depression to me. Woe betide that the husband actually *help* with the baby that he helped create and grow the fuck up, eh?

"Breathing brushed pigskin", now that's a phrase that I've NEVER seen used to sell shoes! I love the bassett hound in this photo, and it's a nice example of period footwear, for the fashionistas amongst you.

Ooh, what's that ringing in my ears? Ah, of course. It's my bullshit-o-meter going off. Also, I swear that woman's got a different expression on her face than the one we see in the mirror...

Chances are that if you're around my age, this ad will bring back memories of similar 'cut out and dress' games in, say, Bunty. Do little girls do this any more, or are they too busy putting their Lelli Kelly slap on?

Here's another example of a drink being marketed very differently now than it was back then. Nowadays, Ovaltine is promoted as a comforting snoozy-bedtime drink, but here it seems to be shown as something more akin to Build-Up. Presumably they're straight off to bed after she's stopped worshipping at his feet for doing a few odd jobs around the place.

Horray! It's another old school competition! This one is all about listing the supposed features of the car, plus a tie-breaker, although this article shows that this ad 'talks up' the car to an alarming extent. There's a famous story about the Vauxhall Viva's rear fuel tank exploding when the car took a shunt from the back, but I can't find a citation on the internet. I'd love to know what the winning tie-breaker sentence was!

Now, this is an interesting one. The 'gas main' the ad refers to may well mean the local supply of natural gas, which was being implemented across Britain at this time. Indeed, my own father was employed to convert households to 'North Sea Gas' for a while. Nowadays, Calor propane gas is rarely used for household purposes, and I must admit that my first thought on seeing the canisters outside was 'Uh-oh!'. Clearly my work fire training sunk in...

This ad attracted me because of the little illustrations around the text, but what struck me about this was the way that Shredded Wheat was marketed then the same way as Shreddies are now, i.e. keeping your loved one full until lunch. It's especially interesting that the tone is the same as well, because Shreddies are aimed at children, continuing the trend we've seen in some ads that husbands were to be looked after just like you would a child. Given that Shredded Wheat is now marketed as a product which is good for your heart, it's a bit weird to see the serving suggestion 'lots of milk'n sugar'! Let's hope the little diddums got off to work all right!

Erm...I'm stunned. For foreign or younger readers, the Minipops was a short-lived UK show with children dancing and signing, often dressed to be a bit older than they really were, so they'd look like the acts they were taking off. It was unsurprisingly taken off the air once questions were raised in the media about the ethics of the show. This ad seems to come from the same sort of mindset, and surely wouldn't make it into print nowadays, even though it's clearly meant in an innocent way. However, it's only fair to point out the hysteria over paedophilia sits uncomfortably with some of the clothes and toys marketed at young girls in the UK, so we're probably more confused over children's sexuality now than we were back then.

Crikey. Girdles have never looked so exciting. Of course, they model them on a woman who clearly doesn't need them, because, as I've said before, the fat has to go *somewhere*. Let's hope any woman wearing this had a loose top.