Sweet-Eatin’ Kelloggs
Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961
Nope, not an April Fool, but a reminder of how times have changed!
Tags: dodgy advice, food, health, kids, retail, social history
Double Prom
Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961
A lovely example of a double-page spread advert, which crop up occasionally in my collection, presumably because they must have been considerably more expensive than a one-page advert. This looks like a new product launch for the home perming application Prom, and we’ve seen later adverts on this site promoting the ‘Pink Rose’ and ‘White Rose’ variants. At least they pretend they like their customers in this one…
Tango
Woman's Realm / 15 July 1961
I can’t say that this copy scans particularly well, but then I was lucky enough to live through the Tango adverts of the 1990s, so I’m spoilt.
Remington Shavers
Men Only / July 1950
Blimey, I honestly can’t find anything to really object to in this advert. This bloke actually seems to *like* his wife…
Tags: health, retail, social history
Capstan
Men Only / July 1950
Always nice to see one of the adverts which inspired this Viz parody many years later.
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, dodgy advice, retail, social history
Churchmans
Men Only / July 1950
Now, these ads really WERE written by drunkards, weren’t they? “Cheer up!” and “THIS IS THE GIN” indeed.
Tags: booze, dodgy advice, health, retail
Sandeman
Men Only / July 1950
A modest boast here, I feel, but when you’re By Appointment to King George VI (my, that looks strange after over 60 years of Queen Liz), I guess you don’t have to try that hard.
Oh-oh!
Men Only / September 1951
I presume the woman embarrassing this young man is his wife, and that we have an early dandruff remedy being marketed here. After the many adverts humiliating women that I’ve seen for this site, it’s interesting to see an advert doing the same to a man.
Tags: beauty, dodgy advice, retail, social history
Dubonnet
Men Only / September 1951
Dubonnet is a famous French apertif, and, as the Dubonnet Wikipedia entry tells us, most certainly has alcohol present, so the tagline is a massive fib. You may not *think* you’re drinking something strong, but a fortified wine with an ABV of 15% isn’t to be treated lightly, even if you do drink it with a mixer. Dubonnet is a drink very much of this era, as this BBC News article explains. I’m in my mid-30s, and I’d certainly never heard of it. I’ve noticed that there seems to be a general admiration towards France from Brits in the 1950s, which I’d attributed to the British middle & upper classes going to France on their holidays, which the BBC article appears to support, and which would explain the prominent use of French in this advert.
Tags: dodgy advice, retail, social history
Lemon Hart
Men Only / September 1951
Good lord, this advert takes its time getting to the point. Still, at least there’s an acknowledgement in it that women might like to drink something stronger than Babycham.
Tags: retail, social history