Monday, June 14, 2010

Advertisements: What Were They Thinking?

After thirty years in advertising, I have a jaundiced view of many ads I hear and see.  I sometimes think the ad agencies have just run out of material, have no respect for human intelligence, have idiots for clients or are way too impressed with their own "creativity".

Then I get bitch slapped with a funny email that reminds me, they've always been this way!

Let me take you back...back to the good old days of yesteryear when products were products,  men were men and women were definitely at the mercy of men, at least in advertising.

  Did I say "men were men"?

How 'bout them soda swiggin' babies?


  Healthy and inspirational:  smokin' docs.


Even better, a smokin' Santa!!!!

Now to the trivialization of women still in the smoking category...

Nothing like a little pedophilia.

A little domination...

Some S & M...

Mixed with good old fashioned maxims like this...
 or this.

 Be sure to totally humiliate and disappoint her...

 OMG where's my wish list?
Last resort...MURDER

I've always found Pitney Bowes marketing annoying.

Remember, clients signed off on these.  Wow.
at

17 comments:

  1. injaynesworldJune 14, 2010 at 8:47 PM

    Oh, these made me laugh. I remember the "Blow in her face one," and the smoking Santa. The group shower though is hysterical. Yep. I've been around that long, too.

    ;)

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  2. JudyJune 14, 2010 at 10:31 PM

    VERY interesting... I'm speechless.

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  3. karenJune 14, 2010 at 11:28 PM

    These made me laugh my *** off! My daughter was telling me today about the dangers of some fruit juices for kids...she should see the moms feeding the kids soda right from the bottle. But I do remember growing up on 7 up! Those were the days....

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  4. RNSANEJune 15, 2010 at 1:06 AM

    Oh my gosh, I find these truly enraging. Can we truly have been so tolerant back in the day? Those ads are demeaning and insulting.


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  5. RuthJune 15, 2010 at 5:03 AM

    UNbelievable. I guess we've come from kitchen slave to beauty slave.

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  6. DJanJune 15, 2010 at 8:55 AM

    The REALLY scary part to me is that I must have seen them and thought nothing of them at the time. Reading them now, at the age of 67 and with some life behind me, makes me hopeful for the future generations. Thank you for sharing these time capsules. We have come a long way, but to where?

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  7. California GirlJune 15, 2010 at 10:21 AM

    Hi Jayne: It cracks me up to see these and yet it disturbs me as well. Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and their ilk, Barbara Stanwyck, Crawford, Colbert, Dunne, all played independent women and role models. Somehow, they didn't carry over into the ads of the day. There was definitely a disconnect between Madison Ave and Hollywood.

    Judy: aren't you glad you missed all this? well, maybe you didn't mmiss the Love's ad?

    maggie's garden: that's hilarious. my father would no more have allowed me to drink soda pop as a baby than fly to the moon. he did, however, love to make us "Squokes" when we were kids. He mixed Coke with Squirt. They were delicious!

    RNSANE: pre-Women's movement of the Seventies; that's why.

    Megan: ;P

    Ruth: Oh gwaannn, you KNOW you like it!

    DJan: "We've come a long way...or have we?" would have been a good title for the post.

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  8. EvalinnJune 15, 2010 at 10:34 AM

    Wow!

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  9. BainoJune 15, 2010 at 3:53 PM

    Ah you have to remember the 'era' they were mad in I guess although the innocence is sexy on is inappropriate in soooo many ways. Are the "Blow in her face . . . " and "Innocence ones real or has someone added the tag line?

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  10. California GirlJune 15, 2010 at 4:02 PM

    evalinn: my sentiments.

    Baino: no, this is the original copy.

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  11. Grandmother MaryJune 15, 2010 at 5:54 PM

    Wow! Where were we women as all this was going on?

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  12. Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertisingJune 15, 2010 at 10:13 PM

    Great round-up, thanks! I do remember a few of these, especially "Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere." How could we have been so clueless? And "Innocence", didn't that come out about the same time Brooke Shields was Pretty Baby? Glad we've come a long way...until I look around and see some of the stuff that's still out there.

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  13. Ima WizerJune 17, 2010 at 9:38 AM

    WOW! Where did you find these! This is a wonderful post that kept me laughing and shocked (thank GODDESS times have changed).

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  14. Joanna JenkinsJune 17, 2010 at 11:49 PM

    Hahahahahaha! AND Santa with a cigarette. Boy, times have changed.
    :-)

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  15. SusanJune 20, 2010 at 8:45 AM

    LMAO!! I've seen a lot of these, but the ones with the babies drinking pop are the killers! Geez Louise! I have to tell you that I have a niece who put pop in her kids' bottles. And she wonders why she owes the dentist thousands of dollars.

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  16. AnonymousJune 20, 2010 at 4:40 PM

    I thank you for your comment.

    I like your ads and remember them when they were new. I guess I have less than a sterling opinion for the tobacco ads now that I have to use oxygen to breathe. And I have COPD too. The Army gave me free cigarettes.

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  17. Anything Fits A Naked ManJune 20, 2010 at 5:19 PM

    Oh...my...GOODNESS!!! I don't know whether to laugh or cry!!! How very, very frightening, and how very, very hilarious! Thanks so much for sharing these!

    I just wanted to drop by and thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. I really, really appreciate it! I'm your newest follower, cheers!!

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