These ads of the past and their messages are downright shocking, but if one thinks about it, there are many similarities between the ads of the past and the ads of today.

This ad advertises the use of tapeworms to stay thin and still be able to eat as much as you want, the only trick is that you have to eat or swallow the tapeworm to get it inside of you. I think this ad shows that even at that time, women in American society were pressured to look a certain way and to have the thin figure that is still known to be advertised by the media as the ideal body for women. Today, there are still dieting methods and tactics advertised for weight loss, but the tape worm diet has to be the most extreme and harmful one I have ever seen. You are guaranteed to lose weight on this "diet" as most of your food is used by your host, the tapeworm, to grow bigger, but on the other hand having a tapeworm inside of you is extremely unhealthy and can even be deadly.

The second ad depicts a man blowing smoke from a cigarette into a woman's face, hoping that she will "follow him anywhere". This ad can show that American society did not have that much respect for women at the time, as this message is very degrading. This also shows that even at the time, lust was a factor used in promoting products and in advertisements, on this level I would have to say that this ad is not as bad as some of the ads we have today, but that is just my opinion. The most shocking thing about this ad is that by following what the ad suggests, many people would contract many serious diseases, such as lung cancer.



This ad shows a very happy family, and says that they are happy because they eat lard. Although, lard is unhealthy and is basically fat, one can still see many advertisements on television promoting other unhealthy fast foods. The main difference between the modern ads promoting unhealthy foods and this ad, is that the modern ones try to cover up the fact that their food is unhealthy. This ad is straight to the point. In a way, this ad is much better than the ads used today to promote unhealthy food as it is straight to the point and does not try to cover anything up.


The final ad claims that more doctors smoked CAMELS cigarettes than any other type of cigarette, this was obviously said by the company to try and attract more people to start smoking CAMELS cigarettes. I am thinking that this ad came out in a time when people did not know about the harmful effects of cigarettes and when no research was done on the damaging effect of cigarettes on the body. Also, it probably came out when it was common for people to smoke cigarettes so this is probably the reason why the ad was allowed to run. This is an example of an ad that would be seen as highly inappropriate in today's society.

The four ads seen here say a lot about what the American society was like back in the day. Women were still pressured to look a certain way and sadly were expected to behave a certain way and even sometimes degraded. American society was also not as conscious about their health as people are today, as dangerous and harmful activities were advertised and made to seem as good. The saddest thing is that I can see many similarities between the ads of the past and the ads today, but the main difference is that the ads of today seem to hide and distort things to make them seem good, while the old ads were much more open with their messages. I'm not that sure that we have come that far with our advertising methods, the harmful messages are still in the media but they are covered up. How can we progress to positive messages being advertised when the old negative messages are still here?