Sexist and offensive vintage ads. 1940 – 1980

Advertising bring out the worse aspects of popular culture as can be seen by these examples... which leads to the following "prediction": in 80 years there will be a similar posting to the then-version of HN, bearing the same title. The ads will be different though, they'll show examples of how men, preferably white men, were being portrayed as bumbling no-good-for-nothing idiots who only survive because there are women around to help them along. It is as if the creatives had a look at those old ads and thought 'good idea, we just need to adapt it to current popular culture'.

Good ads did exist, once... but they did not take creatives to make them. Computer Shopper magazine was a good example of such ads, a phone-book sized tome filled with data sheets which included pricing. Those ads served their purpose, so much so that people actually spent money to buy the magazine which only contained ads. OK, that might describe most glossy magazines but in this case people actually bought the thing because of the ads, not despite the ads.

The one with the blackmail to switch to make models was funny.

My parents were ~40yo in the 70's so they must have been the target of the ads, in France. Since women just got the right to open a bank account without the authorization of the husband they sound similar to what we must have had here.

The ads in the 80's were extremely sensual (or funny). Naked women, a bottle of water that slowly unscrews and explodes after having been fondled by a woman hand, etc.

Sex was everywhere, but this also made it normal to us. I think we were the most liberated generation (born in the 70's), without the pressure of porn but with a healthy approach to sex.