I’m still feeling cruddy, but I thought that in leiu of a regular post you all might enjoy this old ad from 1943. You know, back when Bob Hope was doing a lot of work for Pepsodent. And our GYNOCRATIC OVERLORDSLADIES. Click on it for a bigger and slightly more readable version!
Hope you get better quickly, man 🙂
*takes copious notes*
He only needs to take the Pepsodent if he’s stealing our bon-bons!
Aw, bummer to hear you’re still feeling bad, David.
Irium sounds vaguely radioactive.
That face for step three… well, really all the faces… They scare the daylights out of me. That ad really doesn’t sell Pepsodent very well for me.
Feel better soon, David! Lots of rest and lots of fluids!
I had no idea Pepsodent and “tooth film” were such great conversation starters.
Buttercup, that’s probably what they were going for. There was a time when radioactivity was thought to be good for you…
Bob Hope here for Pepsodent! Now with Irium, twice the Gold Digging trope and a dash of women are all so uninteresting they have to lie about themselves to manipulate a man into being her walking bank account! Plus, it’s foamy and tastes great!
-_-;
More like Bob NOPE.
Not so much a walking bank account as a walking ration book. And if he’s got any money, you’ll be spending it on war bonds or you’re some kind of Nazi sympathizer, sister. Remember, that used tube of Pepsodent you turn in to the scrap metal drive could end up being the bullet that kills Hitler.
My father was in WWII, Pacific theatre. He became familiar with Hope’s USO shows, and loathed the man with vigor for the rest of his days. My father didn’t feel that strongly about many people, so it’s stuck in my head.
O/T but one of the book blogs I read pointed out this tumblr:
http://googlyeyebooks.tumblr.com/
It is pictures of books with googly eyes glued on. It sounds amazingly boring, but it is actually pretty funny.
I like the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe myself.
God, Mad Men is right: most men in advertising are morons…
That googly-eyed book Tumblr is a thing of beauty.
My favorite is the Jane Fonda workout book, ’cause that’s about the expression I’d be making if I managed to get myself into that position:
http://googlyeyebooks.tumblr.com/image/78669908584
Hope you feel better soon.
Bob Hope, misandrist…and shill for radioactive tooth powder. Oy.
Feel better soon!
@nick: my first thought was Mad Men too. Though it was more about how some people see it as a nostalgic look back, rather than it shining a light on how awful and unfair it often was.
But I don’t think those guys are morons. They don’t need to create something good – just something that sells. It’d be interesting to see stats on how successful campaigns like this were.
Long-time listener, first-time caller. How well was the concept of radiation known in 1943? Oh, sure, after August 6, 1945, but in 1943?
David, please get well soon. You are missed when you’re sick. I’m sure you’re spending lots of time with your furbabies. Speaking of furbaby felinus greatus, there’s a shelter here in Vancouver for zee kittehs and his baby gray mogs are being shown on a big UK Animal Planet show. Check zee gray mog kittehs out:
When I was a kid in the late forties early fifties the shoe stores had xray dealios so you could see the bones in your feet. You can watch video of bomb tests where the men were just covering their eyes ad though that would be plenty of protection.
@Kim: I was being a bit facetious, actually – though I’d still argue many of the male characters on Mad Men are more reckless and irrational than any of the women who generally have to deal with their shit (save for Betty Draper, who’s just an unpleasant person). Not necessarily “morons”, but I wouldn’t call them psychologically mature or emotionally stable either.
That said: I do think a lot of creativity gets wasted on advertising, as the show points out. They have these talented copywriters and artists who create all this amazing stuff…which gets scrapped anyway because the milquetoast corporate clients don’t get it (lacking much imagination or creativity themselves).
Get well soon….we can’t miss your posts enough. Women as marketing target still alive and well though this is too obnoxious for words. Why was he ever thought funny?
@Nick: fair enough. And you’re right. The men are not shown in a very flattering light at all. I wonder how much of that is actual societal roles of the time vs style choices for tv vs people who work in advertising.
It’s funny, I haven’t found Betty particularly unpleasant. Other than in the episode I just watched where she said she didn’t think it was time for civil rights, to her black housekeeper. But I am only in season 3. I can see she has the potential to get worse.
Don Draper certainly gets less and less attractive as time goes on, that’s for sure.
A little of both, I think. A lot of characters are not exactly “in tune” with the attitudes that were prevalent then – as if they were born several decades too early. There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance involved when it comes to what they really want to do and what others expect them to do. One example I can think of is Harry Crane when he has to deal with some bad news and ponders if he should keep it from his wife or not. He is told not to by his peers because she couldn’t “handle it” – but he decides to tell her anyway, and she’s supportive of him. Unfortunately, Harry Crane is also kind of a racist (the most casual kind) but that’s the show for ya. I can’t stand Pete Campbell personally yet he’s easily the most racially enlightened character in the show (he makes the suggestion that perhaps certain “white” products can be just as appealing to black individuals to his clients dismay – which is based on a casual conversation he started with one of “the help”).
Also, based on what my uncle – who works at the advertising department at Disney – has told me about his work environment: it’s pretty accurate. Particularly the contractor-client relationship and feuding between various upper-management. Makes sense to me…
It certainly explains a lot about my grandparents and why my dad and his siblings came out the way they did. Not surprised about the 50’s being some golden era, ’cause them and the baby-boomers are far from the superior generation they have been venerated as. They’re as messed up as the younger generations they denigrate – forgetting they were just lucky to live in the time they did, nor did all the world’s problems disappear. Some have, in fact, gotten worse even with the positive progress otherwise made.
Oarboar, given that radiation had been known about since the 1890s there would have been some basic knowledge about it by the 40s, as well as there being known applications such as luminescent paint (radium used to mark the hour points on clock dials) that had already existed for a couple of decades (and had been implicated in the deaths of the painters). However, ‘irium’ is not actually radioactive, but was a commercial name for sodium lauryl sulfate.