Whenever I fall into a swoon of despair over the gross inequalities in society—and let’s face it, they are legion—I try to cheer myself up by looking at vintage ads. Let me tell you, that stuff is appalling. More than art, cinema, or television programming, ads can provide a window not only into who we are, but more importantly, who we wish to be. They create an impossible ideal, one Madison Avenue knows no ordinary human can live up to, and then furnish the “means necessary” to achieve that ideal.
So, let me see if I understand this correctly. We have
1) Beer goggles
2) Child porn
3) Cheap, stereotypical racism
4) More child porn
5) More cheap, stereotypical racism
6) Doctors ignoring the Hippocratic Oath
7) I don't even know what in the Hell that is
8) Even more cheap, stereotypical racism
9) Holy crap!! Even more cheap, stereotypical racism!!
10) BREASTICLES
11) Cheap, gratuitous sexism
12) Cheap, gratuitous sexism AND glorification of domestic violence
13) Holy f**k!! What IS she doing to that purse?? And does that need batteries???
Man, if advertising provides a window into who we wanted to be, (White male) Americans were uniformly YUUUGE pieces of shit. Of course, we did rule the world, so there's that.
I’ve been researching these types of vintage ads for over a decade. Advertising is corporate propaganda and can reveal much about the social structure, customs, and evolution of the target audience. These “innocent” ads, if attempted today, would not only cause outrage, they would probably result in the company’s instant death, along with more than a few investigations and civil lawsuits.
You are right about all of that. It's why I do believe progress is being made. It's never fast enough, but we're closer than we were even thirty years ago, which ain't nothing.
So, let me see if I understand this correctly. We have
1) Beer goggles
2) Child porn
3) Cheap, stereotypical racism
4) More child porn
5) More cheap, stereotypical racism
6) Doctors ignoring the Hippocratic Oath
7) I don't even know what in the Hell that is
8) Even more cheap, stereotypical racism
9) Holy crap!! Even more cheap, stereotypical racism!!
10) BREASTICLES
11) Cheap, gratuitous sexism
12) Cheap, gratuitous sexism AND glorification of domestic violence
13) Holy f**k!! What IS she doing to that purse?? And does that need batteries???
Man, if advertising provides a window into who we wanted to be, (White male) Americans were uniformly YUUUGE pieces of shit. Of course, we did rule the world, so there's that.
Is it wrong that I want a BMW now?
I'm going straight to Hell, aren't I??
You made me laugh SO HARD, I think I busted a rib!!!!! 7) "I don't even know what in the hell that is." BAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!
I do what I can to lighten up the proceedings. :-)
Marvelous and horrifying at the same time—great idea for a post!
EXACTLY. Marvelous AND horrifying. Both.
I’ve been researching these types of vintage ads for over a decade. Advertising is corporate propaganda and can reveal much about the social structure, customs, and evolution of the target audience. These “innocent” ads, if attempted today, would not only cause outrage, they would probably result in the company’s instant death, along with more than a few investigations and civil lawsuits.
You are right about all of that. It's why I do believe progress is being made. It's never fast enough, but we're closer than we were even thirty years ago, which ain't nothing.
Some these were familiar to me -- the tarted up child, for one.
What I worry about are the people who just breezed past that ad in a magazine without being rightly horrified by what they were seeing.
Not just a link, but a whole, detailed web page devoted to all things cringe worthy. I give you...
LILEKS!
http://www.lileks.com/institute/
Oh, boy! John is going to go bananas looking at that stuff!
Lileks has been around for decades collecting oddities. So there's plenty to explore.