8 Extremely Sexist Vintage Ads Media Should Be Ashamed Propagating

20th Century offensive ads that would never fly today.

Over the period of time, advertisements have changed a lot from what it was to what it has become, and today advertising is more of an essential part of our socio-economic system.

All ads nowadays are meticulously designed to speak to the mind and heart of the consumer directly.

Old days advertisements are a reflection of our past and show the values of that particular time when they were made.

Below, I have flipped through these early printed advertisements, highlighting some of these offensive print ads.

These ads were often made by brands that promoted their products through sexism and male chauvinism, which often bred fear of insecurity among women.

People in those days tried to complain; however, most of these requests never made it to the table. Why?

Well, firstly because the companies were not bothered, and secondly, the authorities couldn’t do much because, in those days, there were no rules and regulations to tackle the problems related to ads. Let’s dig straight:

1. Why And How Men Are Better Than Women?

A woman indoors is a blessing because she does all the chores on the mountain — they are more of a drag. What?

Let’s start things off with the most obvious one of all: We can see a man holding a rope onto which a woman is clinging for help.

Cherry on top — some incredibly sexist text makes up its headlines.

The purpose of the ad was to promote sweaters, and not any sweaters but the most racist of them all, The Drummond Sweaters.

Anyone seeing this picture can notice everything else except the sweaters, which clearly defeats the whole purpose — which makes me dubious if that was the purpose in the first place.

2. The Only Cereal That Helps Your Wife Look Cuter

Ok! So the idea here is that a woman should be provided with a good diet because, obviously, the harder the wife works, the cuter she looks. After all, she is more of a machine than a human.

A two-year-old could design a better ad than this.

This ad makes both the sexes look bad because if the husband, aka man, doesn’t provide his wife with Kellogg’s cereal, he is not a good husband, and the woman, well, I don’t have to say much here; we all know why.

3. Confusing Schlitz Beer Ad From The Mid 1900s

Perhaps this is the most confusing ad on the list because, at first, most of us don’t get what is happening.

However, when you go a bit deeper, you realize what it is saying to us. What the artist is saying here is that only a “good” woman knows the only way to make and keep her husband happy is to serve him with Schlitz Beer.

Secondly, a woman doesn’t know how to cook, as she tends to burn all the food that she prepares.

Well, if the only way to keep yourself happy is to marry a woman who can cook properly, then every man should marry a chef.

4. Promoting Beating Your Wife

There is not much to say about this image because everything is obvious here. You exactly know what the people were trying to say above.

People designing these ads knew what they were doing; they knew how to create controversies — kind of mastered this art.

It really didn’t matter to these people as long as they moved the desired product; basically, they didn’t have any rules they were supposed to play by.

Imagine the chaos it would create if such flagrant early ad made it to light in today’s world. Yes unimaginable.

5. Mr Leggs Slacks

While exploring history in past few years, I have seen this ad numerous times — every time my blood boils.

Is it a way of delivering the message? What it is? This advertisement for pants is surely one of the worst that we have seen so far.

The way the picture was taken and portrayed is extremely offensive and sexist, and the wording used in the paragraph below is nothing less either.

The way it says that a woman who was a tigress technically became a floor rug after seeing the “hero” in his sleek Mr Leggs pants.

There were so many other ways to illustrate these pants, but I guess this approach is what people’s limited mentality allowed.

6. Is It Always Illegal To Kill A Woman

This is another terrifying advert from the 1900s, where one can get away with murdering a woman.

Basically, the image above is an advert about a postage meter that made life so easy for the redhead Morrissey that now she has enough time to gossip and go around for so long that her boss is considering killing her.

7. Innocence Is Sexier Than You Think

This cosmetic company released this creepy ad campaign in the ’70s.

Love’s Baby Soft beauty range marketed their products using a child with full make-up while she clutches her teddy with that spine-chilling tagline that innocence is sexier than you think.

The ad was much worse on TV, where the product was marketed with lines like baby soft with the scent of an innocent, cuddly, clean baby that grew up very sexy. Gross.

8. Kenwood Chef From The ‘60s

An ad for a multi-purpose kitchen appliance — perhaps the only appliance that does everything but cook.

But then, of course, that is what women are for. The saddest part here is that the ad is not that old either.

Final Words

Ads have come a long way since they first appeared in the 1700s. Nowadays, there are many rules and regulations that need to be followed when making an ad.

However, the world still sees ads that are sometimes toward the sexist or even the racist side. What can we do? Well, we can raise our voice against any misconduct so that the responsible company knows that this strategy won’t work anymore.