These Vintage Ads Were Once Socially Acceptable – But Now They Would Never Fly

Sure, girls should clean their teeth regularly to keep them bright and healthy. But are women the only ones who should prioritize their dental hygiene? Obviously not – and that’s why this ad rubs us the wrong way. Boys should have been instructed to keep their smiles sparkling, too.

Check out this vintage product! If regular toothpaste was too feminine – please read that with extreme sarcasm – then there was always this bourbon-infused brand for the guys. We can’t imagine it actually cleaned teeth too well, though...

Flight attendants don’t really get their dues. They keep passengers safe and comfortable for the duration of a flight – whether for 45 minutes or 18 hours – and that isn’t easy. And, of course, this means they should always be treated with the utmost respect. Though we still find this ad a bit creepy. Why did they have to bring mothers into it?

We guess that you’d want non-stick cigarettes so that the smoke wouldn’t linger on your breath. But even if this ad promises you cig-free lips after a smoke break, it can’t promise the same experience for your lungs…

Diabetes. Obesity. Heart disease. Nowadays, experts know the health dangers of eating foods high in added sugar. And among this list of offending sweeteners is dextrose: the one we see advertised glowingly in this spread. At one point, it was the sugar of choice in the army – a fact used to peddle the stuff to the American people.

It’s a bit extreme to describe a wife and mom who asks for help around the house as someone “on a warpath.” But then again, vintage ads had no trouble shaming their female subjects. A stressed-out homemaker apparently just needed to take a bath, and her nagging ways would disappear. It would be a lot easier to just help her out with the chores, we think…

Whether he was hauling smokes in his sack or stuffing stockings with tobacco, Santa Claus was regularly seen shilling cigarettes in the first half of the 20th century. And, oddly, he was used to link cigs with the spirit of Christmas. We’re still trying to figure that one out…

This adorable ad features a happy woman, smiling animals and downright giddy fruits and veggies. All of them grin and promise the buyer that DDT is good for them. Yikes! If you’re unaware of what DDT is, then let us explain: it’s a pesticide. And, yes, this print is trying to sell it as a good thing to the American public!

At first glance, you saw polar bears dancing and thought little else of it. Upon further inspection, though, you probably realized that the animals aren’t just having fun. They’re smoking cigarettes! Gasp! Thankfully, you wouldn’t see anything like this in the 21st century, as tobacco ads that could be construed as targeting kids are now outlawed.

We can appreciate this ad suggesting that husbands actually get involved with the housework. But it still starts with a frustrating sentiment: wives burn dinners. Talk about a tired old trope...

Look, when you’re recruiting people to take on a dangerous but vital job, you should be as complimentary as possible. The Navy seemingly didn’t get that memo, however, in the 20th century. Here’s another sexist ad that claims only a man could wear the military uniform. Sure…

The text of this ad is truly mind-blowing. It blames men’s bad behavior on their wives’ inability to mix things up. Then it has the audacity to present a solution to the problem: serving more cans of Heinz soup for dinner. Who knew men could be satisfied so easily?!

Times have changed, and parents punish their children differently today than they did in the past. But even though most moms and dads skip spankings nowadays, it’s crazy to consider the reasons why they may have turned to them in the past. This ad provides one truly outlandish cause for punishment: a child passing too much gas.

Even if you don’t have asthma, you know that it makes it hard for people to breathe. Basically, a cigarette would be the last thing to help. And yet here we are! Back in the day, asthma relief apparently came by way of puffing on a tobacco-filled cylinder. Yeah, that makes absolutely no sense...

Nowadays, we recognize that women and men can be more than one thing. But it’s clear this ad has pigeonholed each gender into a box: the blonde girl represents beauty, while the brawny lifeguard represents strength. All of this stereotyping for a tire? We’ll pass.

Most adults can safely operate an oven or a stove or a dishwasher. Well, we hope so, anyway! But this ad tried to convince consumers otherwise. Worse yet, it promised to help only a subset of women: wives. Because, as we all know, single ladies don’t use ovens…

Any guesses what this ad is meant to be selling? Believe it or not, it’s asking men to purchase a pair of slacks – pants so good that women would allow the wearer to walk all over them. Whether or not they could promise that all ladies would transform into tiger skin rugs is unclear.

Pop on a new tie, and voila, your wife will suddenly realize that you’re in charge. If you don’t believe us, look at the guy in this ad. He’s laying in bed in a button-up shirt and tie while his wife fawns over him. And that’s all thanks to the accessory around his neck. Well, if you believe the ad, anyway...

The text of this ad is truly unbelievable. So, rather than sum it up, we’re just going to copy and paste it. It reads, “Instead of blaming him if married love begins to cool, [the wife] should question herself.” If your jaw isn’t already on the floor, then know this. The ad’s for a feminine hygiene product from Lysol, so you can figure out why the company is saying it’s the woman’s fault. Ugh.

Women couldn’t simply get out of the bath and go to a party – or according to this vintage ad, at least. Instead, they had to slather themselves in fragrance so that no one could smell their natural musk. Otherwise, society wouldn’t accept them. A non-perfumed person was “indelicate” and therefore unwanted. Ouch.

Old-school cigarette ads were pretty outlandish, but this one has to be among the most outrageous of them all! Not only does it objectify a woman by putting her legs on display, but there’s a guy crowning the carton of cigarettes attached to said pins. It’s pretty crazy that something like this made it into print – by today’s standards, anyway.

We barely know what to say about this unreal gun ad targeting female customers. It promises that a gun – dainty enough for a lady to hold – will be enough to protect her from society’s biggest creeps. And while the logic does check out, that seems like pretty extreme advice.

Men are layered, meaning they certainly have plenty on their minds at all times. But if we had to predict what was running through a guy’s head at any given moment, we wouldn’t say soup. Certainly not French onion soup...

You’ll certainly see ads today that ask you to take control of your reproductive health. But you won’t find any written in such blunt terms as this ad! Apparently, you’ll only be happily married if you don’t have a sexually transmitted infection.

It’s nice to know that the person you love is thinking about you. But are they thinking about you just because you’re thin? Probably not. Back in the day, Tab promised to help you stay on their mind with sugar-free drinks. It made sense: if you stayed away from sugar, you’d be slim, which would make you worthy of a daydream. Well, we say it makes sense, but it’s actually really insulting.

Here, we have a feminine hygiene product that casts the blame on a woman for her fizzling relationship. Yup, really. And that’s even if she doesn’t know about this company’s cleansing products. There’s no excuse, ladies!

We all know that soap’s awesome at cleaning skin. It may even make you smell better. But this vintage ad goes above and beyond all that. Supposedly, the suds of La-Mar soap could make users slimmer! Hmmm, we’re not sure if we buy it…

Now, we’re all for a little tongue-in-cheek humor. Even a smutty suggestion or two! But this ad went a bit too far: from the image to the header and the copy that describes the product. We don’t know about you, but we’ll never look at our video game consoles in the same way again...

Who needs an education when you can buy a bar of soap? That’s what Palmolive suggested many years ago. Men in that era didn’t care about a woman’s brains. Oh no! They just wanted her to be pretty – a dream achievable by simply lathering up.

Just the first five words of this ad are enough to make your skin crawl. But don’t forget to look down. There, we see a lady pictured falling off a cliff while her male counterparts finish the climb. We’ve evolved from here, thankfully – and watched womankind climb their mountains time and time again.

The artist’s signature on this painting reveals that they completed the artwork during World War I. And it was a clearly different time – you know, the era in which women couldn’t serve their country. Though as it turns out, ladies have all the strength and intelligence required of a naval officer. Too bad for the men-only troops of WWI!

Now, this is quite the sales pitch! Apparently, you should buy a hairdryer even if you don’t have a single strand atop your head. We wouldn’t see such an ad today because, well, it makes no sense. Plus, it seems to poke fun at those sans hair. And now we know better – being bald is no less beautiful than having a voluminous mane.

There’s nothing like that first beer of the day. No one would argue, though, that a pint of Guinness “[does] you good” or “gives you power.” And yet this 1968 ad – which circulated after the company built an outpost in Sierra Leone – claims that the stout can improve drinkers’ health. Huh.

Wow, you can be the perfect housewife just by eating the right cereal?! And it gets even better – by which we actually mean worse. You’d have enough energy to do all of your housework but not so much that you’d gain weight. Absolutely charming.

In this ad’s defense, we’ve since learned a lot more about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking to see a tobacco brand using a U.S. president to sell its products. Honest Abe probably wouldn’t have approved.

Gotta love an ad with dogs! But pet lovers may find this a bit offputting with all we know about caring for canines today. Basically, you shouldn’t be giving your dog too much bread, as it’s lacking the nutrients your pup needs to grow and thrive. Even more offensive is the dough, which can release toxic amounts of ethanol into Fido’s belly. We’ll stick with actual doggie biscuits from here on out…

We could zoom in and read the text in this long soap-centric ad. Maybe it’s less sexist than it first looks? But the truth is that we don’t care to read the justification behind the question. Perhaps women started looking more tired and aged than their male counterparts because of asinine inquiries like this one...

Most ads depict a product’s low cost – and their customers’ money-saving ways – as positive things. Here, though, we see the weird flipside of that angle. A rich woman decides she will, just this once, stoop for the cheap margarine because it tastes just as good. Yikes.

The Canadian Women’s Army Corps – the CWAC for short – needed to recruit more ladies into its ranks. So, rather than, well, listing the attributes of someone who’d suit the service, they decided to go the sexist route. A woman would only serve because she was bored without her man at home, right?

Perhaps you like company when you go to the car dealership? It’s nice to have a second opinion, after all, or maybe your partner is better at haggling for a good price. If you want to buy a new ride, though, that decision is all down to you. Luckily, sexist ads like this one no longer apply to the female driver who wants a set of wheels.