Remember the good old days when advertisements were more straightforward, sometimes to the point of being accidentally comical? Before focus groups and marketing teams analyzed every frame and word, companies would often release ads that – looking back now – make us wonder what they were thinking! Those vintage commercials and print ads from the ’50s through the ’80s that we grew up with have become treasured time capsules of bygone cultural attitudes and expectations.
1. The Flintstones Promoting Winston Cigarettes
The beloved cartoon family that many of us watched every Saturday morning was once the face of Winston cigarettes in the early 1960s. Fred and Barney would sneak away from their wives to enjoy a smoke break, with Fred declaring, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!” The animated characters even appeared in print ads smoking cigarettes, something that would cause public outrage today. All That’s Interesting juxtaposes these particular products with the other items like vitamins that the show promoted.
Looking back, it’s almost impossible to imagine children’s cartoon characters promoting tobacco products on prime-time television. The casual way the Flintstones enjoyed their “Winston break” shows just how dramatically advertising standards have changed over the decades. This campaign ran until 1969, when tobacco ads were increasingly scrutinized before eventually being banned from television entirely in 1971.
2. Lysol as a “Feminine Hygiene” Product
In the 1920s through the 1960s, Lysol disinfectant was aggressively marketed to women as a personal hygiene product with thinly veiled implications about marriage preservation. The ads featured worried women wondering why their husbands had become distant, with headlines like “She was guilty of the one neglect that no husband can forgive.” These ads preyed on women’s insecurities while promoting a harsh chemical product for intimate use. Smithsonian Magazine also notes that Lysol was promoted to have a lot of different, totally unrecommended uses.
The marketing spoke in coded language about “daintiness” and “married happiness” while showing distressed wives fearing their husbands’ rejection. What’s particularly shocking is that Lysol’s original formulation contained cresol, a caustic compound that could cause inflammation, burning, and even death if used incorrectly. The campaign stands as one of advertising’s most manipulative and dangerous examples of playing on women’s fears.
3. 7-Up for Babies
In the 1950s, the 7-Up company ran advertisements showing smiling babies drinking the lemon-lime soda from bottles, with copy suggesting that 7-Up was suitable for infants. “For the youngest of the young!” proclaimed the ads, alongside recommendations to add 7-Up to baby formula for a “more pleasant taste experience.” The campaign even included purported doctor endorsements suggesting the carbonated beverage could settle upset stomachs. ThoughtCo takes a swig of nostalgia to review the history of this bubbly brand.
Looking back, the idea of giving soda to babies seems preposterous, but these ads reflected a time before widespread understanding of nutrition and sugar’s effects on developing bodies. The cheerful tone and wholesome family imagery gave no hint that mixing 7-Up with milk or feeding it to babies might be anything but beneficial. It’s a stark reminder of how far our understanding of proper infant nutrition has come.
4. The Volkswagen “Lemon” Ad
In 1960, Volkswagen ran what seemed like advertising suicide: they called their own product a “lemon” in bold letters above an image of their Beetle. The ad explained that this particular car didn’t pass inspection because of a blemished chrome strip on the glove compartment and was rejected by their quality inspector. The startling self-criticism was actually highlighting VW’s stringent quality control.
The “Lemon” campaign broke every rule of automotive advertising, which typically focused on glamour and status rather than admitting to potential defects. In an era when American car companies were producing ever larger vehicles with planned obsolescence, VW’s honest approach was revolutionary and risky. This ad is remembered as brilliant rather than hilarious, but its brazen departure from advertising norms still makes it stand out as one of the most surprising campaigns ever created.
5. The Marlboro Man’s Original Identity
Before becoming the rugged cowboy we all remember, the Marlboro Man was initially marketed as a sophisticated gentleman with a tattoo on his hand, suggesting a worldly past. Early 1950s Marlboro ads featured men in business suits and even showed how to properly hold a cigarette, complete with a red filter tip that was originally designed to hide lipstick marks for female smokers. The transformation to the iconic cowboy image represented one of advertising’s most successful rebranding efforts.
The original refined Marlboro Man was considered too feminine, leading to the dramatic shift to the Western archetype that would define the brand for decades. The early ads featured text explaining that the red filter tip “gives you so much of what you’ve been missing in filter cigarettes,” with models demonstrating proper smoking technique. It’s a fascinating glimpse into how a brand could completely reinvent itself, transforming from urban sophistication to rugged individualism in just a few years.
6. Tang as Space-Age Nutrition
In the 1960s, Tang was marketed as the sophisticated drink of astronauts, with ads proclaiming “For spacemen and earth families” alongside images of rocket ships and space exploration. General Foods heavily promoted the fact that NASA used Tang on space missions, implying that the powdered orange drink was somehow nutritionally superior or technologically advanced. The space connection helped this relatively basic powdered drink mix become a household staple.
What many Americans didn’t realize was that NASA didn’t choose Tang because it was nutritionally superior – they selected it primarily because normal liquids were problematic in zero gravity. The commercials showed children drinking Tang while wearing space helmets and suggested that families could experience “space-age nutrition” right at their breakfast tables. The campaign capitalized on America’s space race enthusiasm while conveniently glossing over Tang’s high sugar content.
7. The Benson & Hedges “Disadvantages” Campaign
In the 1970s, Benson & Hedges cigarettes ran a series of ads highlighting the “disadvantages” of their longer cigarettes, showing them getting caught in elevator doors, stuck in typewriters, or bent in phone booths. The campaign cheekily presented product flaws as badges of honor, with the slogan “The disadvantages are worth it.” These self-deprecating ads seemed to poke fun at the product while actually reinforcing its supposed superiority.
The humorous approach was revolutionary at a time when most cigarette advertising emphasized sophistication, glamour, or rugged individualism. Instead of hiding potential problems with their longer cigarettes, Benson & Hedges highlighted them with a wink and a nod, creating memorable vignettes that stood out from other tobacco advertising. These clever ads ran just before increasing regulations began restricting cigarette advertising across various media platforms.
8. The Original Gerber Baby Food Campaign
In the 1950s, Gerber ran advertisements promoting the introduction of solid foods to babies as young as one day old. “The earlier the better,” proclaimed one ad showing an infant being fed from a Gerber jar, alongside text suggesting babies had a “natural craving” for solid foods. These advertisements contradicted medical advice even at that time and encouraged mothers to start their newborns on foods like strained peas and liver soup.
The campaign featured detailed feeding schedules that recommended introducing multiple varieties of strained foods within a baby’s first week of life. The ads often included testimonials from mothers claiming their babies slept better and cried less after being started on Gerber products immediately after birth. Today’s pediatricians recommend waiting until around six months for solid foods, making these vintage recommendations seem not just misguided but potentially harmful.
9. Cocaine Toothache Drops for Children
In the late 1800s, cocaine was widely used in patent medicines before its dangers were understood, and one particularly shocking example was “Cocaine Toothache Drops.” These were directly marketed to parents with the slogan “Instantaneous Cure!” emblazoned on boxes showing a mother administering the drops to her child. The product boldly advertised its narcotic content as its primary selling point.
The cocaine drops were sold for 15 cents per box and were just one of many cocaine-containing products marketed for everyday ailments during this period. While this example predates many readers’ direct memories, the advertisements remain as artifacts of a time before pharmaceutical regulation. The casual recommendation of a powerful narcotic for children’s toothaches serves as a striking reminder of how much consumer protection has evolved.
10. The Iconic “Ring Around the Collar” Wisk Detergent Ads
Through the 1970s and ’80s, Wisk detergent commercials featured the notorious “Ring around the collar!” accusation, where women were publicly humiliated because their husbands’ shirts had stains around the neckline. These dramatic ads showed women hanging their heads in shame while bystanders pointed out the offending rings, suggesting that dirty collars were somehow a wife’s personal failing rather than simply a common laundry challenge.
The ads positioned wives as solely responsible for their husbands’ appearance, with the embarrassed women always grateful when introduced to Wisk as the solution to their social disgrace. Despite – or perhaps because of – their melodramatic approach, these commercials became cultural touchstones that many of us still remember. The shame-based marketing approach seems almost comically heavy-handed by today’s standards, yet these ads ran successfully for nearly two decades.
11. The “Lonely Kelvinator Woman” Appliance Ads
In the 1950s, Kelvinator ran a series of advertisements featuring what became known as the “Lonely Kelvinator Woman” – a housewife dressed in elegant evening attire standing proudly next to her refrigerator or range. The tagline often suggested that while her husband might be away on business or her date canceled, at least she had her reliable Kelvinator appliance to keep her company. These ads unintentionally portrayed a bizarre human-appliance relationship that bordered on romantic companionship.
The glamorous styling of these women – complete with pearls, heels, and cocktail dresses – while performing mundane kitchen tasks created an absurd juxtaposition that looks comical to modern eyes. One particularly memorable ad showed a woman in full evening wear lovingly polishing her refrigerator with the text: “The most exciting thing that’s happened to women in years!” The campaign’s earnest suggestion that household appliances could fulfill emotional needs represents one of advertising’s strangest attempts to elevate domestic products to status symbols.
12. Heinz Ketchup’s “Doctor Approved” Baby Food
In the 1930s through the 1950s, Heinz marketed their ketchup as a nutritious vegetable serving that would help children grow strong and healthy. One infamous advertisement featured a smiling baby with the headline: “Doctor approves… Heinz Tomato Ketchup for even the youngest member of your family!” The copy went on to claim that ketchup was a valuable source of Vitamin C and should be included in children’s diets from an early age.
The advertisements featured doctors in white coats explaining how Heinz ketchup was made from “sun-ripened tomatoes” and contained essential nutrients that growing children needed. What makes these ads particularly amusing in retrospect is that ketchup was being marketed as a health food despite containing significant amounts of sugar and salt, while the doctor endorsements lent an air of medical authority to what was essentially a condiment. It’s a perfect example of how food marketing has evolved from vague health claims to today’s more regulated nutritional transparency.
As we look back at these advertising relics, they provide more than just a chuckle – they offer fascinating insights into our cultural evolution. The advertisements that once seemed perfectly normal now serve as time capsules revealing changing social values, scientific understanding, and consumer expectations. While we might shake our heads at the misguided claims and inappropriate suggestions, they remind us how far we’ve come in terms of consumer awareness and advertising oversight.
