History textbooks often skip what life was like for the everyday, average person in the past. Life for the ‘normal’ person gets submerged in events and larger societal trends.
One way to really step inside of history it to take a look at vintage advertisements. And because we all need a little humor in our life, I present…drumroll…Throwback Thursdays. Enjoy. Or at least roll your eyes in scorn.
Heinz has a winner with this one. It is literally the worst one I have run across so far. The fact it even uses the words “beating” and “wife” is great. And the guys aren’t fairing much better. How do you like your caricature? Balding and yawning? I’ll let you explore the rest yourself.
This ad was so outrageous, I did quite a bit of research trying to find out if it was a fake or not. To the best of my knowledge, it IS REAL. Sadly.
Point #1: The booklet they are advertising: “57 Ways to Use Heinz Condensed Soups” was published in 1944 and was used as a marketing tool. You can still find old copies for sale online and probably at quite a few antique stores.
Point #2: The bleed-through from the other side of the page is pretty good. If someone DID fake this, they did a much better job than the average person.
Point #3: “Toronto” was probably the source of this ad popping up all over the internet. They had an regular feature in 2008 with vintage ads from the Toronto area. And they actually named their source: National Home Monthly, January 1950. Which is (was) a real magazine- I’ve found multiple citations in papers and old copies for sale. Sadly, I can’t find an online version of the magazine.
Jamie, the author of said article, is probably the same Jamie on Flickr who has uploaded thousands of scans and pictures of old magazines and newspapers. Go check out her (his?) photostream.
Whoops, I actually said his and hers. An OUTRAGE! Everyone boycott me.
While it is featured on quite a few “sexist” lists, one reputable source is “National Women’s History Museum.” Unhappily, though, their source leads back to Business Insider, who doesn’t list their source.
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