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What I find funniest about the situation is the few people who thought Obay was a real product. Pretty clear there’s just too much drug advertising out there…
Oddly-shaped buildings are indeed a good way to draw in visitors and business. I like the ice cream cone idea, and have seen a few around the country today (some with ice cream scoops on top, even). The teapot spouting steam is clever. Shaping your hot dog stand like a creepy demon, though…
Well, it’s supposed to be a puppy. (Maybe it’s better when seen head on?)
Distance learning is considered a promising technology. Students can get lectures from “visiting professors” on the other side of the world. Or sit at home on one side of the country while a teacher streams video to them from the other side of the country. It will revolutionize education, bringing student and teacher together wherever they may be on the planet.
Wow! Great thing the internet and video conferencing have brought this new concept to life, isn’t it?
Sorry, there really isn’t anything new about it: “Dr. C. C. Clark” was doing it back in 1935. Since it continues to be not found everywhere, I doubt there will be any huge upsurge in coming years. I guess teachers see something useful in making students come to them. I do know people who are in long-distance classes — they download their videos every couple of days, they turn in homework online, and never need to meet the professor face-to-face. But that’s for a master’s degree in business school. If my kids ever end up doing this when they’re in college, I’ll eat my hat. (Disclaimer: I don’t own a hat since I didn’t grow up in the 1950’s. Haha!)
I find that I prefer toy advertisements from “back in the day” over modern ones. Less stupid electronic rock music in the background while you blow up trains.
My brother had model trains while he was growing up, but none of those missile-shooting kind. His just went in a circle. Then he became a policy wonk when he grew up, not a jet pilot (and I’m sure there’s some sort of metaphor for “going in circles” versus “launching missiles” in there somewhere).
I can’t make this stuff up. Seriously, I can’t. My mind doesn’t warp that way.
Lysol: because nothing says “sexy” like “smelling like a kitchen floor”, unless perhaps it’s “causing severe chemical burns on the genitals.”
One point in favor of Ye Olde Crazy Days: the 1936 work Facts and Frauds in Woman’s Hygiene was just as against this idea as I am (read the chapter online here). Unfortunately, the above advertisement was from 1948…
It’s not surprising that menstrual discussion continues to be publicly led by corporate interests. Even school educational films from decades ago were product-placement driven.
“Molly Grows Up” shows cheerful young Molly, accepting menstruation as yet another step towards being able to wear lipstick and drool over wedding dresses. However, it’s overall quite positive, treating the menstrual cycle as a natural part of growing up — even Dad is able to hear the news of Molly’s new period in this family. The film was made by Modess, and their pads naturally are the ideal solution.
“Naturally a Girl” from quite some time later. Again, an overall positive attitude about this “exciting” time in a woman’s life. Again, sponsored by a sanitary napkin manufacturer; after a brief introduction into what the cycle is all about, the second half of the film is entirely about issues with napkins. (There’s an EXCITING NEW product which has adhesive on the back of the pad! WOW!)
The impact of brand loyalty in a relatively taboo subject can’t be underestimated. Girls and women don’t tend to have long chatty conversations about periods; if they do, it’s just to bemoan its inconvenience, not to compare products or wonder which pad absorbs more. I used Always for thirteen years — my mother had used them, so they were around the house already and it was what she bought for me when I needed my own.
I remember during poor college days, grumbling over my budget, calculating just how much money I spent on feminine products and being annoyed (that’s a whole couple of meals every month!)… but my frustration was directed at the menstrual cycle that kept coming and forcing me to spend money, NOT at the corporation that had informed me it was necessary to buy single-use products for this cycle. They had succeeded in bringing in my mother’s generation into the disposables world, and my generation followed just because that was what one did. (Thankfully, reusable options are making a resurgence, thanks to rising environmental concerns as well as a growing openness about menstruation. Visit GladRags and rejoice in the money you can save.)
In an average … woman’s lifetime, she is likely to use 15,000 sanitary pads or tampons. Over 12 BILLION pads and tampons are USED ONCE and disposed of annually… An average woman throws away 125 to 150 Kgs of tampons, pads and applicators in her lifetime.
The financial costs are significant. It’s an annoyance for a college student on a “tight budget”, but becomes drastic for a family in real poverty. Nevertheless, the same corporations who convinced the Western world that disposable sanitation was the way to go are now concentrating on the developing world. There are millions of untapped customers, menstruating regularly, and they’re happy to provide product.
Projects by corporations like P&G are not entirely mercenary — they are donating water pumps, restrooms, and similar basic sanitation requirements, without which any menstrual protection is far less effective. However, their real goal is to sell sanitary napkins, getting women hooked on a cycle of “convenience” that their families can ill afford. I really prefer the work of groups like Goods 4 Girls: “Providing reusable supplies not only provides a more environmentally friendly alternative for these young women (in areas of adequate water supply for washing), it reduces their dependence on outside aid organizations to continue providing for their monthly needs.” Good for them for not conforming.
Minimal effort has gone into production and social marketing of low-cost napkins, reusable materials, research into bio-degradables, etc. Research and development efforts have been limited to commercial ventures that … are unable to market products that are affordable for the poorest of the poor….
I trust the work of independent research more than I do the opinions of corporations with a financial stake in the matter. I have personally used both disposable and reusable options of all sorts, and find the reusables to be much more comfortable. The financial and environmental benefits are icing on the cake.
Softcore porn for selling aftershave tells us that smelling aftershave is enough to make a woman put on a bikini and uncomfortable shoes and twist her hands into uncomfortable positions.
If you think stuff like this isn’t still around, you haven’t read Feministing’s hatred of Axe advertisements and promotional products (which are far worse than the image at right). Same old ridiculous stuff.
Personally, I am of the opinion that aftershave smells terrible, anybody who uses it puts on way too much, and the woozy effects you notice in people while you’re wearing it are because they aren’t getting enough oxygen to their brain. God only knows why you would also want one that made your face burn.
Oh, those charming days when medical science was just learning what amazing things could be done with chemicals.
For example: Mabel is unstable, let’s sedate her with (highly addictive) barbituates until the change is over. Why not just lock her in the cellar and pretend she’s visiting a distant cousin for a few months, that way friends won’t need to be bothered at all with Mabel’s suffering?
For even more creep factor, check out the advertisements for the anti-psychotic Thorazine. Not just for schizophrenia, apparently; it can also be used by alcoholics, crotchety old men, housewives, and cancer victims.
The tendency to drug behavior problems hasn’t really decreased with time, although hopefully modern medicine would choose something gentler than Thorazine for depression. (Seriously — Thorazine?!? Maybe she’s screaming because you’re shooting her up when she just wants to get out of the house for a bit.) It’s very common to see advertisements for all sorts of things — allergy medication, restless leg syndrome medication, insomnia medication, depression medication, genital herpes medication, erectile dysfunction medication…
There are absolutely valid scenarios in which medication should be used. Thorazine might be able to help the alcoholic, for example, if his problem is caused by obsessive-compulsive drinking combined with depression. But advertising is designed to sell product, and it does so by making you imagine a problem that it can solve. In the case of the pharmaceutical industry, they make you desire a medication and you therefore decide you’ve got a disease to match. My father-in-law is a pediatrician; if you want to hear a good rant, ask him about parents who decide their child has a syndrome (usually allergies) which needs to be addressed with the latest advertised drug. Now that there is a drug to treat it, lots of people are being diagnosed (or self-diagnosed) with restless leg syndrome; in reality they are just tired, stressed, and/or over-caffeinated. Not a whole lot has changed in fifty years of medication advertising.
I find it creepy to watch commercials in which Bob has “something about him” after he’s started taking Viagra (or is it Cialis? I haven’t kept track), in which the obvious joke is that Bob is walking around with a massive erection and that’s why everybody now values him more. It is a whole different class of creepy to advocate dosing Gramps with Thorazine so you don’t have to get hit with his cane, or sedate Mabel so you don’t have to get hit with a mood swing. The tone has improved, but there’s a long way to go before we could consider them to be sensitive to sick people.
Parental respect is something that I really struggle with as a “mental hygiene” topic. On one hand, it’s the most ancient forms of respecting authority (codified in the fifth commandment), and they do things in your best interest (as well as they understand it). On the other, the notion that parents are infallible is hardly correct, and part of growing up is realizing that you’re an individual and don’t have to be exactly like them.
If push comes to shove, I’m raising my kids to obey me. Question all you want, but do as I say until you’re not living in my house any more. I expect some rebellion, especially once they arrive in adolescence, but hopefully they listen enough to stay out of overly serious trouble.
Anyhow, here’s the 1950 Coronet Instruction Film, “Appreciating Our Parents.” Tommy is basically spoiled rotten until he sees his parents washing the dishes together and realizes his life would be horrible without their hard work.
(I love the scene where Mother gets her allowance at the same time as Tommy.)
What is most interesting is that Tommy decides to go from useless load to ultra-helpful, all on his own initiative. Sadly, it’s school that had to guilt children into this attitude by showing them this film, instead of parents guilting children into doing their share around the house.
Advertising is a gold-mine what people thought could help them achieve social normality. Which, in this case, included wearing high heels at home and ensuring your children read “a rich treasury of stories [which] forms his opinions of right and wrong” so that “during his most pliable years, he is molded to respect his community.” From what I can see of used copies for sale on Amazon, it might have simply been a sort of encyclopedia; it’s not clear if it evolved into that from its original “development plan.” This appears to have been the same company that put out World Book.
Hopefully I’ll stumble across some copies of this in an antique store someday — I want to read some of those ways to “recognize behavior situations before they become ‘problems’”…
