Men Only / July 1950
I think this probably wins some sort of prize for the laziest ad copy ever, although it must be said that the ads from these Men Only magazines are all fairly similar. All evidence that the consumer society hadn’t really got going in 1950, and that it would take a few years before advertising was forced to get more imaginative.
Tags: retail, social history
Men Only / July 1950
Look at that bunch of smuggos, all giving themselves lung cancer whilst discussing how they and those of their ilk should continue to run the world.
Tags: booze, retail, social history
Men Only / September 1951
There’s no answer to that, really.
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, dodgy advice, retail, social history
Men Only / September 1951
Sitting up straight is not mere vanity, it’s true. I’m not convinced that a humble belt would help all that much, though.
Tags: dodgy advice, retail
Men Only / September 1951
Given recent events in the Crimea, this feels oddly timely, but of course it’s another part of the campaign that this ad comes from. By the way, I think the illustration is of hand grips on the Tube stock of the day, but it took me a couple of minutes to work it out!
Men Only / July 1950
Some UK politicians have made a great fuss recently about foreign nationals visiting the country and benefiting from free healthcare provided by the NHS, but it may interest you to see that these were mainstream fears a mere 2 years after the NHS’ formation. This article from the Independent explains that foreign visitors are more likely to pay to use NHS services than to have them for free, but the total cost from foreign visitors using the NHS for free (e.g. acute, unplanned care) is far less than the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt would have voters believe.
Tags: social history, xenophobia
Men Only / July 1950
No, I don’t know either. But the discount for ex- and serving forces members is very canny, given the time of the ad. Another thing I don’t understand is the shoe polish ad. Is it trying to sell to women by making them paranoid about their shoes, or support men judging women by their appearance, therefore getting an indirect sale? It’s all too complicated for this woman, frankly.
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, dodgy advice, social history
Men Only / July 1950
Here, dear readers, is the precursor to the UK’s ‘flag carrier’ airline, British Airways. Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia has an excellent summary of BOAC’s history, but the main topic of interest for this site are the old names for what were, in some cases, still parts of various countries’ empires, or newly-independent countries. Perhaps the thing that strikes me the most is the blanket terms for huge areas of Africa, something which Westerners still do without really realising, and was clearly just one of the reasons why independence movements were in full swing in so many areas of the continent. Frankly, just thinking about the Horray Henrys that this advert was aimed at jauntily shooting and patronising their way across Empire makes me feel a bit ill.
Anyway, it’s also notable for the alliances mentioned with Qantas Empire Airways (now just Qantas), South African Airways (still operating under that name) and Tasman Empire Airways (forerunner of Air New Zealand). These alliances presumably were to ease long-haul journeys to these countries, as BOAC were the first to enter the jet age in 1952, two years after this advert was published (the De Havilland Comets are fascinating in themselves). Not only were Horray Henrys the only people able to afford foreign travel at this point, they were also the only people with the time available!
Fun fact: BOAC became British Airways just before the operation of Concorde, with the first Concorde delivered to British Airways having the registration G-BOAC.
Tags: retail, social history, transport
Men Only / July 1950
Ah, nothing like a bit of emotional blackmail to help a government hedge its bets in a brave new post-WW2 world.
The Territorial Army is the official reserve armed force for the UK, although the situation in 1951 was complicated by the fact that conscription into National Service for 17-21 year olds wasn’t to end until the early 1960s. However, the advert here is aimed at men who served in WW2 and had been sent home after the war to either continue to support their families, or to start one. Given that some conscripts weren’t sent home until 1949, it seems rather unfair to immediately haul them back, just because Britain wasn’t getting its own way in the post-WW2 world.
But then, for men brought up on the idea of British Empire, the early 1950s would indeed have been frightening; the various conflicts related to the Cold War, such as the Korean War lasting from 1950-1953, the Malayan Emergency lasting throughout the 1950s, and the chaos of Indian independence in 1947 would have all contributed to a feeling of the world order as most Britons knew it falling apart. No wonder some feared that they’d have to go through it all again.
Tags: dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, scary thoughts, social history
