In our
deranged post covidhoax world, there is often an attitude of "things
were better in the good old days", but in actual fact the programing and
misinformation has long been just as full on as it is now.
These 10 old adverts are mind boggling examples:
“Sugar might just be the willpower you need to curb your appetite”
1. Junk Food, Now Fortified with Vitamins and Minerals
Disguising empty calories with healthful nutritional values has been a
trope of the processed food world ever since vitamins were first
discovered in the 1910s.
This 1942 poster for “Vitamin Donuts” may be a
little hard to swallow today, but Ovaltine’s reputation as a health
drink is still being disputed,
a powerful testament to simple brand positioning. But let’s be real,
we’re talking about powdered chocolate milk made by Nestlé, the company
who brought us such healthy foods as Butterfinger candy bars
and Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
The Ovaltine ad from 1947 still boggles the mind with its display of
so many nutritional perks packed into two glasses of powdered milk, and
seems eerily similar to the many supposed benefits contained in drinks
like Vitamin Water or Gatorade. In reality, even the benefits of
ordinary vitamin supplements are now being questioned, despite the fact that around half of American adults take them regularly.
2. Let Them Eat Lead
The most heartbreaking part of this 1923 brochure is its emphasis on
kids having fun with the whole “Lead Family” of products, whose presence
in everything from their nursery walls to their windup toys made young
children particularly susceptible to its dangers. Combined with lead
paint’s seductively sweet flavor, putting kids in environments literally
covered with the stuff was a recipe for disaster.
In fact, the effects of lead poisoning (brain damage, seizures,
hypertension, etc.) were known long before the Consumer Product Safety
Commission finally banned them in 1977; the industry had simply refused
to acknowledge them.
An article
by Jack Lewis published in the EPA Journal in 1985 covers lead’s
history as an additive and poison, and how we’ve consistently downplayed
its adverse effects. Lewis writes:
“The Romans were aware that lead could cause serious health problems,
even madness and death. However, they were so fond of its diverse uses
that they minimized the hazards it posed. Romans of yesteryear, like
Americans of today, equated limited exposure to lead with limited risk.”
3. 7-Up is good for Babies
Not only were sugary soft-drinks great for adults, but sodas like
7-Up used to help babies grow up strong and fit, or so these ads from
1955 and 1953 would have you believe. That’s pretty disturbing,
considering that childhood obesity, linked arm-in-arm with massive soda
intake, is shortening our youngest generation’s lifespan. The high amount of refined sugar in soda has also been shown to be particularly harmful for children.
Today it seems crazy to show a baby drinking a soda, as the tide
finally turns against the sugary drinks: School districts across the
nation have removed soda machines from their schools and New York City’s
Board of Health has proposed a ban on over-sized sodas. However, many
adults today opt to serve kids “healthy” fruit juice, which may be just
as bad, despite its deceptive nutritional marketing.
4. Cigarettes: Just What the Doctor Ordered
Camel’s campaign featuring doctor endorsements is probably the most
familiar instance of false advertising, seen here in an ad from 1948.
Yet almost every cigarette company twisted science to support its
products, including Chesterfield’s 1953 ads, which rephrased expert
findings to show that smoking had “no adverse effect.” Long after 1950,
when Morton Levin published his definitive study linking smoking to lung
cancer, experts continued to imply that there were other factors
causing cancer and lung disease.
Though the industry has been seriously weakened over the past 20
years, primarily by government regulation, Big Tobacco is still issuing
misleading health information in an attempt to reap a profit.
5. Feminine Hygiene: The Original Home Wrecker
Long before Lysol was reinvented as the caustic household cleaner we
know today, the same substance was basically promoted for use as a
feminine hygiene product. These Lysol ads from 1948 tout the internal
use of poisonous Lysol as a marriage saver. To sum up the message: if
you weren’t so dirty down there, he would love you more.
In a time when speaking about sex was even more frowned upon than today, a whole spectrum of sexual products, including vibrators and contraceptives, was marketed with campaigns focusing on their dubious health benefits for women.
6. Plastics, Plastics, Everywhere
Suffocating babies in Cellophane! A bunch of infants tied up in clear
cellophane packaging is pretty frightening to modern viewers, but at
the time, these ads were just plain cute. When these Du Pont Cellophane
ads came out in 1954, things like plastic grocery bags weren’t a
ubiquitous part of American culture.
Only after plastic bags became
widespread during the 1970s did their strangulating qualities become
frighteningly clear.
7. You're right in liking meat
At
least this one was good advice, but it wasn't very fashionable in 2012
when the appalling low fat high carb diet craze was all the rage
In post-World War II America, eating more red meat seemed like a
great way to keep yourself “in trim,” at least according to these two
ads, from 1956 and 1946. Like other food fads, this campaign was
orchestrated by the American Meat Institute, a lobbying group that is
still working to improve public and political opinion toward its
products.
Maybe that’s why almost nobody in America knows that
nutritionists generally recommend only 2-3 servings of red meat per week. And don’t get the experts started on sodium nitrite in processed meat.
We now know that eating too much meat increases the risk of heart
disease and cancer. Yet industry trade groups are still creating food
trends to spur sales or combat negative public stereotypes: Think of
modern wonder-foods like agave nectar or chia seeds that seemed to
appear from the heavens, as well as the bitterly argued corn
syrup campaign.
8. Dieting? Try Sugar
In a time before the current widespread obesity epidemic, sugar
companies wanted shoppers to believe that a sweet treat would somehow
inspire you to eat less. These ads from 1969 coach readers to “have a
soft drink before your main meal” or “snack on some candy an hour before
lunch.”
Their strange logic isn’t even backed by a company name, though
the campaign does include a helpful mailing address for “Sugar
Information.” Talk about creepy.
Now refined sugar is presented as the dieter’s enemy, and is thought to make you want to eat more rather than less.
9. Shock Your Way to Physical Perfection
In 1922, “Violet Rays” were said to cure pretty much anything that
ailed you. This Vi-Rex device plugged into a light socket so users could
give themselves home shock-treatments, which would supposedly make you
“vital, compelling, and magnetic.” Various recalls and lawsuits erupted
throughout the U.S., forcing the FDA to finally prohibit their
manufacture. The last batch of Violet Ray products was seized in 1951.
10. DDT is good for you and me
This ad for “Penn Salt Chemicals” from 1947 shows a range of
dangerous applications for now-illegal DDT, from agricultural sprays to
household pesticides. Particularly disturbing is the image of a mother
and infant, above the caption stating that DDT “helps make healthier,
more comfortable homes.” Not quite.
While effective in eliminating dangerous mosquitoes that carry malaria, DDT also has a variety of hazardous effects:
Especially among young children, the chemical has been shown to damage
the nervous, immune, endocrine, and neurological systems, not to mention
its devastating influence on the natural environment.
The spread of DDT
across mid-century America is mirrored today by the success
of Monsanto (one of the companies that originally manufactured DDT) in
placing its genetically modified products on store shelves before
researchers have a full understanding of their larger ecological
impacts.
The Need To Think For Ourselves
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