I used to collect ads that featured gratuitous images of scantily clad women. You know the type -- the ones where a half naked gal is sprawled on the hood of a car.
But why bother writing an example when I've got a whole bunch to show? These are more or less in chronological order, some from before my time.
What's amusing about this is that the ad advises the bathing beauty to light an Old Gold cigarette not because it will help to drive away to beach bore, but because "its mellow fragrance will calm your raging tempest like nobody's business."
This ad is selling paper to printers, in case you couldn't tell.
I love the disembodied possessive hand around her waist.
One of the strangest campaigns ever imagined by a mainstream ad agency.
Ads for printing-related products are great sources of gratuitous girlie shots. Whether it's chemicals...
... or selling different types of half tone and line effects.
A friend gave me this panty hose package in the early 1990s. He bought it at a small grocery store on Hennepin Avenue, just south of Uptown, Minneapolis. I assume (given the model's shoes) that it had been in the store for at least 20 years. As they used to say in Ms. magazine, "No Comment."
This is an early 1990s two-page ad for a naked, nipple-free, high-heeled-but-shoeless woman. The headline on the left page reads "The most beautiful feeling in the world is just a touch away." Really!
This ad is also from the late 1980s. This use of a semiclad woman is not really so bad (after all, it is selling underwear). And given the trends of the past 20 years, I actually appreciate that the model appears to weigh more than 100 pounds.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Put Some Clothes on
Posted at 8:00 PM
Categories: It Came from the Basement, Media Weirdness
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8 comments:
An amazing assortment: thank you! (and my word verification for this comment is: de man)
That Maidenform campaign went on for a long time. It's still burned into my brain, and it pops up anytime I say the words "I dreamed...."
The Maidenform ad must have been from a later time. The ones from the 50's were restricted to showing the bra OVER the clothing.
I would place this Maidenform woman in about 1962 or 63, given her hair and clothing, as well as the way the printing looks. I wonder when they switched from bras over clothes to no clothes?
The decapitated picnic girl reminds me of so many book covers (YA and romances) that present the body, but not a face. I think the notion is that it will make it easier for the reader to identify with the protagonist as depicted. OR maybe it is just the fashion of the time--like wearing an onion tied to the belt...
The Jockey For Her ad with the blue panties is NOT from the 1990s, it is from the 1980s!
I've revised the date on the Jockey For Her ad.
Cool. Thanks Daughter Number Three. :-)
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