Woman's Weekly / 14th May 1965
She ought to get that seen to. Seriously, though, and I know I’ve gone on about this before, but aren’t Trimmetts basically advocating that you eat their biscuits for the rest of your life? I reckon you’d have far more fun as a ‘fat maiden’.
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice
Woman's Weekly / 4th July 1969
Oh, Sweetex. It’s really very lazy just to have an already-thin model hold up a dress of the same size against her, and just tighten the belt. Not to mention that if her waist really was that small, she’d be very ill indeed…
Tags: diets, dodgy advice
Woman's Weekly / 16th April 1965
I’m sure regular readers can guess my problems with this ad, especially the idea that you’d put up with replacing one of your meals with Trimetts biscuits and milk on a long-term basis. Maybe the idea was that the horrible flavours they sold the biscuits in was enough to put you off food for the rest of the day.
Tags: diets, dodgy advice, trimetts
Woman's Weekly / 18th June 1965
And with ‘Waistline’, came ‘Slimline’, of course, causing my mother and aunt always to demand a ‘Slimline Bitter Lemon’ when they went to the bingo, way after the brand gave way to just a ‘diet’ label. Given that they were in their early 20s when this ad was published, they were smack bang in the demographic. It looks like artificial sweeteners took off in the 1960s, and whilst they’re useful to dieters and diabetics, they’re not without controversy. This Wikipedia article provides a good summary.
Woman's Weekly / 26th March 1965
YES! Get yourself high and you too can fit in a nice dress! This article suggests that these pills were probably amphetamines, so presumably, if you didn’t have 20 shillings to spare once you came down, you put all the weight back on through eating normally, and, most likely, you put more on through comfort eating as well. The article linked to also gives details of modern diet pills, which don’t sound that pleasant either. As ever, eating sensibly and exercising regularly is the only proven long-term method of weight management, and you should talk to your doctor if you need support.
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice, health
Woman's Weekly / 9th April 1965
In fact, I don’t envy her figure, mainly because she looks like a smug 13 year old, and that’s not my style. I found it curious that this is called a Milk Diet, because it doesn’t have an awful lot to do with milk at all, apart from it being the one comfort that you’re allowed during this week of misery. The milk is obviously there to replace the fat and calcium that you wouldn’t have otherwise, and although I think it’s likely that you would lose weight on this diet, it’s hardly a sensible long-term eating plan. Quite what they expected you to do after the week was up, I’m not sure: feel smug for a week and then realise you’d put it all back on?
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice, food, health
Woman's Realm / 11th March 1967
Starch has been accused of causing weight gain for many years, but there’s not any conclusive evidence for this. As this NHS article says, it’s more likely to be portion sizes that make the difference. The problem with the approach of this ad is the short-termist nature of it, because woman cannot live on Energen alone! My auntie is a perfect case study of someone who periodically dieted by eating virtually nothing but Ryvita (Energen under a different name, really), and then put the weight she lost back on when she came off the diet, because she hadn’t changed the eating habits which put the weight on in the first place. As for the husband who magically loves his wife again because she’s lost a few pounds? Yeah, same old, same old…
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice, Energen, retail
Woman's Weekly / 4th April 1969
Ah, Susie Orbach would be delighted with this one. The language says it all: “Make this your disappear year!”. Of course, you’re far less likely to want to campaign for equal rights when you’re worried about taking up too much space, with that stupid body of yours. However, while you’re waiting for Bisks to work their magic, remember: most overweight women have beautiful forearms.
Slimming biscuits have been around in some form or another for years, but they don’t deal with the elephant (ahem) in the room: just what happens when you’ve lost the weight and are sick of the sight of them? My aunt is a case in point: going hell for leather powered only on Ryvita isn’t actually an effective healthy eating plan, because, yes, she just puts it all back on once she starts eating normally again.
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice, retail
Woman's Weekly / 4th April 1969
Tsk, look at that fat cow. No wonder they’re telling her to use artificial sweetener…oh, hang on. She’s actually rather gorgeous. Remind me why she should lose weight again?
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, retail
Woman's Realm / 11th March 1967
Call me cynical, but isn’t that model’s radiant look less down to PLJ, and more down to the make-up that they’ve plastered all over her? In terms of messages given to women at this time, this ad really does take the biscuit. Not content with persuading women that wearing a nylon strait-jacket and not telling your husband that you dye your hair is normal behaviour, they’re now on at you to look great at 7am. Bastards.
Tags: beauty, blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice, retail