The Budget Babe | Affordable Fashion & Style Blog

Bizarre Vintage Ads: What Were They Thinking?

Just when we thought advertisements couldn't get any weirder, we stumbled upon these strange yet amusing vintage ads at EatLiver.com. Each holds fascinating clues about a bygone era (although we'd rather leave some of these mysteries unsolved). Click the thumbs to get the full-size pics...


Can't decide what's more disturbing: the hotdogs or the sweaters.


If you can stop laughing long enough to see the fashion in the ad, you'll notice some fab diamonds, red nails, sculpted eyebrows, and a dramatic off-the-shoulder emerald green gown. Who says smoking isn't glamorous? (JK!)


And we thought M·A·C was cutting edge maquillage! Note how polite the writer is in their critique (unlike so many Internetters these days). And what's a "beauty culturalist"? Hehe


The Frankenstein contraption in this ad makes Botox look pretty tame, no? Goes to show people have always been obsessed with appearances to some degree.
Comments
the glam lady in the cig ad, rise stevens, was an opera singer in the 50's. i have some old Look magazines at home from the early 60's and they show women sweeping the kitchen floor in full-skirted shirtwaists and pearls and heels. how cute. how beverly hills. ha ha ha
another vision from that age and more realistic, since these were the days before central a/c, is going into your friend's apartment on a summer day and the parents would be sitting in their underwear next to the fan. there was no 'at home wear' at that time! you won't see that in the ads.
ha ha ha
the ads are a window into the past, not so much as reality, but what people's fantasies were and how the ad companies catered to them.:-)
#1 maggie z on 2007-08-14 07:34 (Reply)
We had no idea Rise Stevens was an opera singer! How cool. Although the smoking habit couldn't have been good for her career...hehe

You're absolutely right about the ads portraying people's fantasies--and that hasn't changed a bit!
#1.1 The Budget Babe on 2007-08-14 12:44 (Reply)
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