Nothing dates so quickly as adverts. We take them for granted but within a few years they look odd and within a decade are a quiet source of amusement. But in their time many won awards, some imbedded themselves deep into our memory and a few became catch phrases often out living the product.
In their way they are a wonderful way to understand the period. One of my favourites is the advert for St Ivel Cheese which appeared in Woman’s Weekly in 1911 and drew on pseudo medical information to claim that it “contains lactic cultures which eliminate the poisons that other foods create” or the promise that grapefruit could act as a sliming food which I took to heart in the early 1970s, only to realise that tinned grapefruit contained sugar and rather defeated the object.
I was also fascinated by my Canadian friend Lori who used the catchphrase “Calgon, take me away!” Now always wanting to understand these things I tracked it down to a series of commercials for Calgon bath and beauty products which aired in North America. One of which had a woman wearing a fluffy pink robe who is seen in a chaotic home scenario. As tension rises, she utters the slogan "Calgon, take me away!" and in the next scene is relaxing in a bath in a quiet room. Like all successful catchphrases it has been referred to on songs television shows and films.
All of which is a way of introducing a site which my friend Lawrence put me on to last night “Have you seen this site - touch of nostalgia in photos? Best part I think are the adverts for food products. Who would have thought Twiglets were around in the 1950's I never saw one until the 1980’s?”
http://www.historyworld.co.uk/
My own favourite is the one for packamacs, but I have to say Lawrence is right about the food adverts. I spent a happy time remembering the things I ate in the 1950s and 60s many of which are now long gone.
Picture;an advert for Bird's Custard from Womens Weekly November 1911
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