Last week I had the opportunity to read a small stack of Family Circle magazines from 1972. This was great fun for me since I was born in 1972 and gave me a chance to see what was happening in the world from the female perspective… in some ways it wasn’t pretty.
Besides the rampant cigarette advertisements, there were a lot of advertisements about women not being fresh and hygienic… and I do mean a lot of advertisements! I won’t get into in this post, but it was disturbing and it seemed that a lot of women might get neurotic over it.
Instead of showing all the female related ads- I will post this one which shows a woman spraying down her bed with Lysol.
Why? Because apparently the bed is not fresh!
Am I missing something or do people really spray down their beds? Maybe just regular showering with soap and water would help these people instead of fumigating their bed with Lysol? How about changing the linens? Oh what do I know?
Moving along we have this fresh faced cutey from a 1972 Pampers Diapers advertisement… isn’t that cute she’s going to be President someday. Well we can dream can’t we?
Speaking of females in politics, wasn’t it Sarah Palin who was just bragging to the media that she and McCain were just a bunch of mavericks? I wasn’t really up to speed with the term “maverick” frankly, but apparently “The Mavericks Are Out To Change the World,” as this ad for Jeanie Sportswear by Maverick shows.
Better luck in 2012 Mrs. Maverick Sarah Palin don’t forget your polyester sportswear, it’s what all the mavericks are wearing.
Moving along- remember the ads on the back of comic books that claimed if you sent in a nominal amount of money they would send you a life changing guide? Generally it was something like “are you a 98 pound weakling, we can help.” In the back of the 1972 Family Circle magazine I have found the female equivalent with Mark Eden’s Bust Developer.
Mark Eden claims he is “the World’s Most Successful Bust Developer,” which is further verified by this lovely lady who states “My bustline increased from 36″ to a FULL 40″ in just 6 weeks.” Not too shabby when plastic surgery wasn’t as common place in the seventies. But hold on ladies from sending in the $9.95 you nipped from your husband’s wallet for Mark Eden’s miracle bustline developer.
I have a secret for you- my bustline increased that much too and I didn’t have to pay one cent… it’s called pregnancy. Shhh- you might want to keep that one under wraps.
The last ad I wanted to share with you is this touching ad from Hotpoint. The Hotpoint Automatic Ice Bucket. For the family that drinks. Isn’t that cute- that’s the family that drinks when they were just little itty, bitty nippers. I know them now and boy are they a bunch of nasty, middle aged jerks!
Well-I shouldn’t talk, even I was cuter in 1972.
Interesting. Of course, I don’t remember any of those as 1972 was the year I took Karen away from Milwaukee — and married her — and I probably wouldn’t have been reading Family Circle. Don’t generally look at advertising anyway.
Here’s an interesting vintage ad (found off of one of the ads on this page):
Camel ad
Mike- I posted the television ad version of that ad on here. The doctor is puffing away in his office. What was weirder was the commercial with Barney & Fred (Flintstones) puffing away on Winstons.
I don’t watch television or read magazines much and online I am oblivious to ads to. I got my immunity to ads from buying used.
I am MADLY in love with the bustline lady, “Sheila Maverick”.
In the 70′s we could have been the family that drinks Lysol !
Gosh SpeedyCat, your breath is so , errr … “hospital like”. That makes my boozem`s heave out like they’ew caked with Mark Eden’s magic creame.
Trippin` … man. Far out GroovyCat.
Can I advertize here??
This all happened long before my birth – which was in 1998…LOL! Perhaps you could recommend Palin some maverickey vintage 1972 garments! It would cost her much less than $250,000?
OMG – these are a riot! I was just a young one then and didn’t read advertisements so the ads are funny to me, but I remember seeing refrigerators like that! And I remember Lysol being used a lot more back then than it is now. Now people use Fabreze which is probably just Lysol with a different scent.
You find the greatest in nostalgia. I don’t recall any of the ads but they are cool.