6 Shocking Vintage Ads That Would Be Surely Banned Today
Outrageous campaigns people shamelessly designed.
A lot has changed during the latter half of the 20th century, and among them were ads. Advertisements that we see everywhere, whether it be our television screens, billboards, newspapers, magazines, flyers, and whatnot.
Nowadays, all these ads need approval from certain governments’ regulatory authorities, and this is to make sure that an advertisement that is to be published or to be shown is not offensive and follows certain SOPs.
However, things were not the same in the early years of advertising. There were no rules and regulations that determined how an advertisement was to be made and what compulsory things needed to be followed.
Because of this, we see numerous ads from those days that are either racist, sexist or just outright offensive.
If the advert wasn’t one of these three then it was either about guns or cigarettes. These advertisements were so offensive that they would never see the light of day if they were made in today’s modern world. Honestly.
Be warned that some of the ads that you might see are too offensive, and they are being shown just for educational purposes. Let’s dig straight:
1. Smoking Can Get You Any Girl That You Want
The image above depicts an extremely offensive smoking ad from the ’50s where a man can be seen blowing on a woman’s face.
The person who designed this ad surely had some major issues with his or her brain — I mean, come on, there should have been a better way to market the product.
Anyway, you can see in the picture a man is blowing smoke on the face of a woman just to impress her, and the ad is made to make you believe that if you blow smoke of this particular brand on a woman, she would follow you blindly anywhere — was it some kind of voodoo smoke?
I guess in those days; people were really not concerned about their health in any way.
The ad reflects how smoking impresses girls and really doesn’t give a damn about inhaling secondary smoke, and didn’t real men just smoke Camel Cigarettes in those days?
2. Get Rid Of Toothache With Cocaine Drops
The fact that this advertisement contains words like Cocaine and Druggists is an offense, making anyone end up behind bars.
However, the ad is from the 1900s, and it shows how people didn’t care about drugs in those early days of our modernization. Back in those days drugs were just a major source of entertainment and flex.
3. Flip N Style “Hair” dryer
The image above captures a bald woman using a hairdryer in an advertisement from the late 1900s.
Well, this ad from Panasonic is perhaps the most freakish and rather cringe on the list.
Above, you can see a bald woman holding one of Panasonic’s foldable hair dryers. I mean, how mad should one be to come up with an idea like this.
Maybe the plan was to showcase a hair dryer that can also be used for drying the sweat of your bald head — the possibilities are endless.
4. Camel Cigarettes Doctors’ Recommendation
Isn’t it absurd how the profession of a doctor is chosen to promote cigarettes?
I told you earlier that the only cigarettes people smoked back in the day were Camel Cigarettes…why?
Well, because it is the only cigarette that was recommended by the doctors, and it was their favorite brand of cigarettes too!
How can one even consider making an ad about cigarettes while putting a doctor onto it?
People truly didn’t prefer living healthy or anything that was healthy for them.
5. Showing A Baby Drinking 7-Up
Fizzy or carbonated drinks are considered something that is extremely unhealthy in the modern world of today.
However, back in the day, 7-Up or any other carbonated water was something that was not a big health concern.
This sugary drink was a source of great pleasure, and this is what is shown in the picture itself, where the baby doesn’t look like he is even a year old — however, he is happy with having it.
The other thing noticeable in the picture is that a woman, the “mom”, is helping the child guzzle and enjoy the fizzy beverage.
When it comes to the tagline, I mean, come on, one should have been strictly questioned.
6. Begin Shaving Early
This Gillette razor ad is in a category of its own, and the ad looks weird no matter from how many angles or how many times you look at it.
Even if, for instance, we agree to start shaving early, don’t you think this is a bit too early?
Anyway, what’s done is done, and we are not getting close to building a time machine to correct these mistakes from the past, so it’s better to learn to live with it.
In the picture above, you can see a baby has his face slathered with shaving foam while he is happily shaving it off his face.
Final Words
The conclusion is simple here: advertising back in its early days is more of a grim comedy for people living in the 21st century — we should be thankful that at least we have improved in this area in time.
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