Fun retro ads

10th November 2008

posted in Feminist Topics, Food History, Pop Culture |

Thought I’d pull a few over-the-top retro ads from the ‘ole archives to share. Old advertisements are always quirky and ridiculous, but ads from the pre-feminist glory days always make me laugh. That is, until you realize how some things really haven’t changed at all. Click on each to see a larger-res version. Enjoy.

1927 Frigidaire Electric Refrigerator vintage advertisement. “Give her a real thrill this Christmas!” Note to husband: Buy me a household appliance for Christmas and I will punch you.

1951 Florence Ranges vintage advertisement. Because its all about the mens.

1924 Beeman’s Chewing Gum vintage advertisement. Illustrated with photo of Dr. Beeman. Marketed for relief of insomnia. Scissors to remove gum-in-hair extra.

1967 Clark’s Diet Chewing Gum vintage advertisement. Because gum is soooo fattening.

1957 Life Savers Pep O Mint Candy vintage advertisement. Text reads, “Shirley Simpkins lost her sleek appeal. She never stops eating from meal to meal. Slim Sally Hayes stays light on her feet, she makes Life Savers her ‘tween Meal treat.” Picture shows frumpy Shirley Simpkins eating cookies while two boys look on frowning and a sleek and chic Sally Hayes eating Life Savers with two boys smiling and waving at her. Fifty years later, some things never change.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Feminist Topics, Food History, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On November 10th, 2008, spacedcowgirl said:

It’s funny (sad, not ha-ha) that even though Shirley and Sally are illustrations, they are not shaped that differently (though of course Sally is not just thin but thinner than any human being could actually be in real life); Shirley is still very thin–she’s just dressed in baggy clothes with messy hair and shoes and socks that make her legs look shorter than Sally’s. And her posture is less flattering than Sally’s. Kind of like a modern-day weight-loss “before and after.” You’re right, some things indeed never change.

posted on November 10th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

2 On November 10th, 2008, Twistie said:

You know, Mr. Twistie would be welcome to get me a household appliance for a gift-giving ocassion…but it had damn well better be one I’ve asked for!

Ironically enough, my father’s first gift to my mother was a 10″ cook’s knife. She’d admired it and spoken of wanting it, so as soon as he was able to get back to the store where they’d seen it, he got it for her birthday…and then spent the next week or so sweating over whether he’d done the right thing. At last he went to her roommate and asked if he was going to find himself on the receiving end of that blade two minutes after she opened her birthday present. The roommate told him: “If it was any other woman in the world, you’d be in big trouble, but this is Helen. She’ll love it.” She did.

BUT, it was something she really did want, she was an excellent and enthusiastic cook, and it was a hell of a knife. In fact, it outlasted her and is doing its damndest to outlive me, too.

It’s taken me years to convince Mr. Twistie that not all gifts need to be frivolous in order to avoid violence. Still, if he gave me a fridge or told me the new stove was so I could make all of HIS favorite foods, he might well wind up in the ER rapidly followed by divorce court.

I echo everything spacedcowgirl said about the Life Savers ad.

Oh, and anyone who chews gum in bed to avoid insomnia may find the condition more permanently cured than they intended. I honestly don’t think choking to death on chewing gum in the night is the answer. I’m just saying.

posted on November 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

3 On November 11th, 2008, wellroundedtype2 said:

I want to be friends with Shirley Simpkins more than Sally Hayes, who looks stuck-up. Shirley Simpkins doesn’t look frumpy to me so much as just self-satisfied.

posted on November 11th, 2008 at 1:22 am

4 On November 11th, 2008, Misty said:

I can’t believe it. A post on this blog that’s NOT about the election. I didn’t realize this was still a size-acceptance site. I thought it had become just a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party.

But to the ad, Shirley Simpkins looks beautiful–and actually very thin. The other girl looks as androgynous as Olive Oyl. I can’t believe at any time someone could have considered the underweight girl on the right a superior “ideal” to the much prettier blonde girl. The ad deconstructs itself.

posted on November 11th, 2008 at 2:57 am

5 On November 11th, 2008, raven said:

@ misty: i’m sure that there are plenty of guys and gals who would find both shirley *and* sally attractive. b/c everyone has different tastes. the point (to me at any rate) is that either girl can be seen as attractive depending on who’s doing the looking. and also that both girls are worthy of receiving basic human respect. also, i’m hoping you were just being joking about the types of posts rachel has been making.

about the post: i would *love* a new dishwasher for christmas. the one we have is absolute crap and i’ve been asking the hubby to please replace it asap. or possibly one of those new clothes washers that doesn’t have an agitator in it. b/c i would dig that! but i would be thrilled w/those things b/c… a) i have asked for them repeatedly and b) i don’t want to have to pay for that expensive kinda thing myself. heh. (we have separate money even though we are hitched)

posted on November 11th, 2008 at 3:52 am

6 On November 11th, 2008, Rachel said:

Hey Misty — As I’ve explained before, the political election has absolutely everything to do with this site’s larger goals — which I get to decide because, hey, I pay the bills. I directed every political post made around the larger subjects of health care, which is kind of important to folks with mental health and eating disorder issues, and feminism, which, as you can read, is listed in the tag line above. If you don’t like what you read or don’t agree with the politics promoted here, you are under no obligation to continue visiting the site.

posted on November 11th, 2008 at 10:40 am

7 On November 11th, 2008, ladyjaye said:

Am I the only person to think for a sec that in the Pep O Mint ad, the guys in the left image were hugging?

posted on November 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

8 On November 11th, 2008, Rebecca said:

Ladyjaye, there is indeed something vaguely homoerotic about the two men embracing in fear of the “massive” Shirley Simpkins.

posted on November 11th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

9 On November 12th, 2008, Rachel said:

Haha, maybe it’s not the cookie-eating that has them turned off to ‘ole Shirley Simpkins!

posted on November 12th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

10 On November 12th, 2008, Richard Mullen said:

Its hard to believe that the blonde was once the example of being overweight. Dang it, someone already said the thinner one looked like Olive Oyl. He he he he! she does!

posted on November 12th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

11 On November 12th, 2008, ricki said:

The really sad thing? A few years later, they probably would be showing the “thin girl” smoking cigarettes to keep her “desirable figure.”

And of course, today, those Life Savers would have to be sugar-free in order to be considered “safe” to eat and still stay slim. (Or they’d be called a “sometime treat.”)

posted on November 12th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

12 On November 12th, 2008, Jackie said:

I say Shirley Simpkins looks FAR better than Slim Sally Hayes. It’s not that I have a thing against thin women, I just think Shirley has more cute appeal. I wonder if it’s something subconscious I won’t realize until later, or the way Shirley is holding the cookie up to her mouth looks sort of Anime.

posted on November 12th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

13 On November 13th, 2008, Rachel2 said:

Simple: If he gets me anything “favored by women, for cooking for men”, he will get his nose ripped off his face and fed to him…

That’s about all I’ve got to say on that particular issue.

Sally Sampkins is far too thin, and I would look at her and worry. Guys (nowadays, I’m not sure about ‘way back then’) LIKE meat on their women.

posted on November 13th, 2008 at 12:53 am

14 On November 14th, 2008, HillaryGayle said:

Okay, I have no idea why this happened, and I wonder if it just happened to me since no one else has mentioned in the comments yet. (It’s possibly because of some research I was doing for my mental health nursing rotation, since it was on this topic, and Flock sometimes does bizarre redirects for no reason.) But when I was looking at this in Google Reader, I would try & click on the picture links to see a higher resolution version, and it would send me to an article on anger management from the Mayo Clinic. *giggle*

And wow. If you’re feeling peckish between meals, I’m sure a peppermint Lifesaver is OH so satisfying. e_e

posted on November 14th, 2008 at 4:12 pm