18th June 2014 / 3 Comments
Men Only /
July 1950
Well, it’s not quite as awful as this corker from Amplex, but how fascinating to see men’s grooming as closely scrutinised as women’s, so early on in the development of deodorant. Naturally, the approach is to appeal to men’s ambition, rather than whether their very existence is causing offence to others, but the message is clear; high-ranking men might sweat the same as a spot welder, but they’re not allowed to show it.
Tags: dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, health, retail, social history
30th May 2014 / No Comments Yet
Men Only /
July 1950
I’m not sure where to start with this one. Perhaps the first point is that it’s impossible to kill all the animals featured in one safari, given that you’d have to go to at least two continents to do it.
Tags: adverts totally made of wrong, retail, scary thoughts, social history
27th May 2014 / No Comments Yet
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
25th May 2014 / No Comments Yet
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
16th April 2014 / No Comments Yet
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
9th February 2014 / 2 Comments
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
19th January 2014 / No Comments Yet
Men Only /
September 1951
I think the copywriters might have sunk several pints themselves in the sun, because this advert has many words, few of which make any real sense. The comment referring to ‘womanlike’ is very confused, and it’s hard to make out who is actually being sold to. Perhaps this is the sort of rambling mess these ad men offered their own wives when stumbling back from a long liquid lunch.
Tags: blatant sexism, dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, marriage, retail, social history
12th January 2014 / 2 Comments
Men Only /
September 1951
Will’s Cut Golden Bar, a product of a bygone age (in the UK, at least). The advice is also from a bygone age, when pipe smoking was a sign of manhood, and smoking a routine sight in British offices.
Tags: dodgy advice, retail, social history
7th January 2014 / No Comments Yet
Men Only /
September 1951
Well, this is a fascinating snippet of history. I was given two issues of the pocket-sized magazine Men Only from 1950 and 1951 as a marvellously well-judged birthday present, which, at this point, bore no relation to the current pornographic magazine. Men Only from 1935-1970 was rather akin to GQ, although less concerned with pictures of women, the one nude in each issue being a ‘tasteful’ colour illustration. As this is pre-‘lad’ culture, the emphasis is more on being a responsible man; but not *too* responsible.
Hence, we have this advert for BP (at this point, called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), which appears to be referring to the nationalisation of oil production in Iran in 1951, causing Britain to organise a worldwide embargo of Iranian oil. Therefore, no BP (or Anglo-Iranian) products were available. This advert seems to be a remarkable ‘keep the faith’ message from the company, which at this point had withdrawn from Iran, only to return in 1953 when a Western-sponsored regime change had been installed. Petrol rationing in the UK had only ended in 1950, so the company could afford to sit things out back home, due to mass motoring not really becoming popular until the end of the 1950s onwards. As the excellent Wikipedia article shows, this wasn’t to be the end of the company’s troubles in that area.
This advert also appears to be addressing the development of the UK road network, which had been started in the 1920s, with the 1950s seeing the construction of motorways. All of great interest to the predominately male motorist, of course.
Tags: retail, social history
