Gibbs
Woman's Weekly / 20th March 1965
This all raises the question: what WAS Mrs Earl of Lewisham doing before to strengthen her family’s teeth?
Tags: emotional blackmail, Gibbs, health, household
Bread, jam, and emotional blackmail…
Woman's Weekly / 11th April 1969
So there you are. The Flour Advisory Bureau are suggesting that if you don’t feed your kids bread, you’re a bad mother. At least pseudo-sciency bullshit used to be more clearly attributable back in 1969…
Tags: emotional blackmail, Flour Advisory Bureau, food, kids
Eat Eggs, You Mothers!
Woman's Own / 14th July 1967
Don’t you just love emotional blackmail? This instructive ad, which includes the famous Fay Weldon line “Go to work on an egg.”, also includes the line “…children who start the day with a proper cooked protein breakfast feel, look and behave so much better than those who don’t.” This reminded me of the famous line from Brass Eye: “That is scientific fact. There’s no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact.”
Although some studies have certainly found that breakfast is beneficial for overall health, there’s no suggestion that a cooked protein breakfast is necessary. If you’re interested in what you should eat for breakfast, take a look at the British Dietetic Association’s advice.
Tags: blatant sexism, emotional blackmail, food, kids, motherhood
Smooth Hands for Baby…
Woman's Weekly / 9th March 1957
Because, y’know, a bit of rough skin might damage them irreversibly, or something. All part of the rather depressing message sent to women that they not also had to work all the day long in the house, but they couldn’t show any symptoms of having done so, because reality might upset not only their husband, but their children as well.
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, blatant sexism, emotional blackmail, marriage, motherhood, retail, social history
PROPER toilet roll…
Woman's Weekly / 2nd August 1957
THIS IS IMPORTANT! We’ve passed right over emotional blackmail here and gone to all-out panic, it seems. Although Izal is still on sale, it’s never beaten soft toilet paper in British affections, despite shrill adverts like this. On the contrary, there’s few people who remember it fondly from the days when it was used in public and school toilets, as this set of reviews proves. According to some posters, there’s a special knack to getting the best out of Izal, but it does rather seem like a lot of work, and folding it into three would negate the less ‘wasteful’ claim of the advert. Frankly, a proper hand wash sounds like a better idea to me.
Tags: dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, Izal, motherhood, retail, social history
Aquasan
Woman's Own / 21st March 1969
Well, quite. It sounds like the people behind Aquasan won’t be happy until you’re able to lick the bowl. Her expression suggests that she’s given that a try.
Tags: blatant sexism, dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, retail
Nerves?
Woman's Weekly / 2nd August 1957
Crikey, this is the advertising equivalent of shouting “GET ON WITH YOUR BLOODY WORK AND STOP MOANING!” in some poor woman’s face. Note that no-one’s casting doubt on whether the husband’s the same man she married, probably because, well, yes, he IS: because when he got married, all he did was swap his mum for his wife, with regular sex as an added extra. And if his wife wasn’t happy with that? Well, it must be HER fault…
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, blatant sexism, dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, marriage, retail, Sanatogen
The Savlon Scene
Woman's Own / 21st March 1969
Wow. This is the most ‘of its time’ advert that I’ve ever seen. ‘The Savlon Scene’: what a great phrase!
Tags: dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, groovy, retail
Egg Cookery
Woman's Own / 21st March 1969
“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.
Tags: blatant sexism, Egg Marketing Board, eggs, emotional blackmail, food, marriage, motherhood, social history
10 Most Bizarre Sexist Adverts
Wow. Although I’m very happy bringing you the best/worst of advertising from my own collection, the Times have displayed a collection of images from blogs who are focusing on outrageously sexist adverts. My favourite is the Lysol advert, which made me cover my lady parts in horror, especially when the ad talked about alternative ‘remedies’, like salt. Salt?! Enjoy, gentle readers…
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, blatant sexism, dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, marriage, retail