Advertisements

The four advertisements presented are shocking. Two are health contradictions, one is sexist and degrading, and the other is plain stupid.

Let’s call the first advertisement ‘Fat Banished’. This ad’s message is to lose weight by eating ‘sanitized’ tapeworms. This ad is not appropriate and is in fact promoting harmful behaviour. It is trying to get females to consume dangerous organisms to eat the fat in their bodies to lose weight and ultimately look a certain way. Tape worms, however, do not discriminate between substances, and so would not only consume the fat in the women’s bodies, but whatever else they had eaten. Although this advertisement at first seems more harmful than modern ads, many contemporary substances contain toxic chemicals. This shows that at the time of the ad’s production and distribution, North American women were already trying to fit the mold. Also of note is that the add claims that fat shortens one’s life. This is not true: a terrible diet, overeating, and no exercise, which is what the ad promotes, will shorten one’s life.

The second advertisement depicts a man blowing smoke into a woman’s face, with the caption, ‘Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere’. This advertisement is disgusting; it promotes chauvinism and a degrading view of and loss of respect for women. The message is that by smoking cigarettes, specifically the brand Tipalet, one will appear ‘cool’ and thus attract women. This ad was meant to be an appeal to romance, however, it crosses many lines by promoting destructive behaviour: the use of cancer-causing chemicals and promiscuity. This advertisement was meant to be flirtatious and clever, but is actually insulting to the female population, as it infers that women are not independent. This ad is not as bad as modern advertisements, in which messages of eroticism are more openly displayed, however, it still shows that at the time the media was open to using sexuality as commercial value. This ad reminds me of the television commercial in which a woman sees an expensive car, and so bumps into it to set the alarm off. A man comes running to see what happened to his car, and then the women flirts with him because of his expensive car. Although these are two different mediums from two different times, both present similar themes: that women are attracted to and dependent on ‘elite’ men.

The third advertisement depicts a supposed ‘doctor’ smoking cigarettes. It is obvious that this ad came out when research found that smoking cigarettes is harmful to one’s health. The company, Camel, tried to influence its customers to continue to buy its product by claiming that doctors, leading health practitioners, smoke cigarettes despite the toxic chemicals. The ad claims that ‘More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette’. This ad, however, violates broadcasting laws because the facts behind this statement are not given; the ad does not say how many doctors were asked, how many said they smoked Camels, how many smoked other cigarette brands, or even how many do not smoke cigarettes. This ad offers no proof of its claim, and tries to link cigarettes to health by associating its product with doctors. I am amazed that this ad was allowed to print despite the obvious lack of evidence and statistics to support its claims. This ad also shows that many North Americans wanted to smoke cigarettes, but they did not want the consequences, and so advertisers had to sway them with false claims of healthiness.

The fourth advertisement promotes lard, and equates its consumption with happiness. This ad is an appeal to sentimentality, as it shows a happy family who appear to be living the perfect suburbia lifestyle. This ad is very direct, and I appreciate that there are no hidden messages; I assume that the ad was allowed to be printed for this reason. Also of note is that many modern ads have hidden purposes, so this advertisement is refreshingly honest. This ad, however, promotes an unhealthy substance.

The four ads presented all bear interesting features that reveal a lot about North America and gender roles during the time they were printed. They show North Americans’ preoccupation with senseless dieting, harmful substances, and its demands on women to take on a certain role in society and to change themselves to fit the mould. All one can really say when looking at these advertisements and their irrational, senseless statements is “Are they serious?!”