8th September 2011 / 2 Comments
Woman's Weekly /
2nd May 1969
Given that an industrial crisis in the coal industry was to hit the new Heath government only three years after this ad, the upbeat copy about ‘fuel costs so low they seem impossible’ seems grimly ironic, and doesn’t mention that the price must have been a result of government subsidy. Coal was to be the victim of the 1970s’ energy crisis, at least where Britain was concerned. The ‘Three-Day Week’ of early 1974 and the last gasp of the industry, the 1984-1985 miners’ strike, largely finished the domestic use of coal in the UK.
Tags: coal, energy, politics
3rd June 2011 / No Comments Yet
Woman's Weekly /
30th May 1969
This competition is quite something. We have to imagine a world where solid fuel was in common enough use for a competition to be based on its usage, and of course, open fires were still widely used in 1969. In fact, my aunt was still using an open fire up until the late ’80s, but she was unusual, and she used wood rather than coal. Also, it’s a kind of competition that’s rarely seen nowadays, as it assumes that the entrant has the time and energy to leap through the hoops required for this one!
Tags: coal, competition
27th October 2009 / 1 Comment
Woman's Weekly /
9th March 1957
Well, it’s interesting that advertisers are STILL using the ‘man useless at housework/cooking’ line, but what really makes this interesting is the ‘Fuel Emergency Notice’ and the claim that the gas industry made the best use of the nation’s coal (issued, naturally, by the Gas Council). Of course, this all makes sense when you consider that coal was rationed from the outbreak of WW2 and that the ration wasn’t actually lifted until a year after this advert, in 1958…
Tags: blatant sexism, coal, cooking, Gas, Gas Council, household, retail, social history