Fionna C.

people in the 1900s were pure geniuses at creating gender offensive and scientifically incorrect ads. For example....


"Blow it in her face and she'll follow you anywhere."

This ad was created back in the day, when our parents were adolescents which may have led our parents to have a “cool” impression of smoking.

Presently, the ads we see are the opposite of this ad. There are posters and brochures stating the downfalls of smoking like lung cancer, heart problems etc. The product that popped into my head that similar to this was the AXE commercials. In nearly ALL of their commercials, their focal point is in relation to attractive women flirting with men that use axe. The bottom lines of these commercials are that women are attracted to the product that is being sold.

In my opinion, the poster degrades women. Women basically cling onto men’s habits whether it’s good or bad. This ad treats women as if they are like pets and also conveys the shallowness of a woman’s personality.

I wonder if these ads convinced the consumers to buy the product. This would be hilarious if both the man and woman died of lung cancer.



“More Doctors Smoke CAMELS than any other Cigarette”

This ad is idiotic and quite similar to the one above. The doctors reassure the buyers to think optimistically about smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. At the time is seems as if doctors were like celebrities, and everyone valued their opinion. Doctors are supposed to promote healthy lifestyles but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t smoke.



“EAT!EAT!EAT & Always Stay Thin”

The main thing is that the companies WANT money. The company might have seen a potential market in weight loss. As a result they created the tape worm product for people to eat and not having to exercise.

People will do anything to feel good about themselves and it could be having a good body image. The ad showed women that they are unhealthy and they should be skinny to be beautiful. Weight loss nowadays is more of healthy long term lifestyle, while the tapeworm method is unhealthy, harmful and a quick fix

Their clients for the tape worms were especially for women. The reasoning behind this is basically women care about their images more than men.

I’m astonished the ad said that there’s no danger; easy to swallow and no ill effects. I assume that the company had some knowledge concerning the harmful effects on the tapeworms but kept it confidential for business purposes. I love how they wrote SANITIZED tape worms.


"They’re happy because they eat lard”

My theory for the Lard ad is that back in the day, lard was the cheaper way to go than butter. It was a definite YES that people would chose lard over butter because of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The company was concerned about having a happy family lifestyle. However,because the ad says that they’re happy because they eat lard, it must indicate that the public at the time felt miserable due to the Great Depression. Pig fat is cheaper to produce than butter from milk.

We're always being told to fit into some ideal shape, rather than just being ourselves and being happy. Commercials nowadays show families enjoying their meals or snacks like KFC or equally fatty foods. So how is this poster any different? The change is that they aren’t straightforward. They wouldn’t say. “A bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken only at 19.99 which includes a small drink, 20 grams of sodium and calories you will never be able to burn off :]”