To push their products, advertisements from the Fifties and Sixties simultaneously created and reinforced gender stereotypes, depicting women as brainless beauties and kitchen-dwellers who, most of the time, need help looking slimmer.
Ads for Jell-O and Lifesavers, to shampoo brand Head and Shoulders and the dish-washing brand, Ivory Liquid, all ensured women knew the importance of staying svelte, complicit and clean.
These overtly sexist print advertisements from the not-so-distant Mad Men-era tell women being fat is no way to find a husband, a case of dandruff could cost them their boyfriend, and wearing jewelry that their husband did not gift them is a fast track to domestic abuse.
Vintage messages: To push their products, ads from the Fifties and Sixties simultaneously created and reinforced gender stereotypes, depicting women as brainless beauties who need help looking slimmer
A 1957 ad for Life Savers' Pep-O-Mint flavor depicts a girl, Shirley Simkin, who has 'lost her sleek appeal' eating cookies as she walks past snickering men. Juxtaposed next to Shirley is 'slim' Sally Hayes, who is popping a Life Saver as she steps 'light on her feet' past a pair of waving men. The ad tells women, and men, that a slim body is desirable.
A 1967 ad for Warners, starring Lauren Hutton, takes this slim-equals-attractive idea one step further. Overlaid on a picture of a pear, the headline reads: 'This is no shape for a girl.'
Body image: This 1967 ad for Warner's takes this slim-equals-attractive idea one step further with Lauren Hutton modelling its girdle and Little Fibber bra
Deal-breaker dandruff: In 1970, Head and Shoulders warns women not to be 'a loser,' use its shampoo instead and keep the boyfriend
Fat-fixer: These ads promote a product called Chubbette, which appears to be the 1956 version of Spanx - 'fashions to make girls six to 16 look slimmer'
Having 'too much bottom and too little top' is a symptom that needs re-proportioning according to the company, trying to sell its girdle and Little Fibber bra.
Meanwhile, Head and Shoulders warns women not to be 'a loser,' use their shampoo instead and keep the boyfriend - who seems to view dandruff as a deal-breaker.
One ad promotes a product called Chubbette, which appears to be the 1956 version of Spanx.
Handy: This 1969 ad for Ivory Liquid targets women who want to have hands that look like her son's girlfriend's after years of washing dishes
Brainless beauty: This Jello-O ad informs stay-at-home wives that they don't need an active brain to make its pudding tarts for their working husbands
Pop art: This 1965 ad for Ivory Liquid Gentle White Detergent uses pop art design, and a jealous threatening-looking husband, to advertise a free-bracelet-with-purchase deal
The ad tells mothers that even if their daughter is 'on the plump side,' she still has a chance of looking as 'pretty' as her 'slim' friends. The Chubbette wardrobe consists of dresses, skirts, blouses and slacks 'cleverly designed to minimize extra pounds.'
And another ad for Lark cigarettes explains that if a wife promotes, praises and supports her husband's smoking habit, he will be less likely to forget their wedding anniversary. 
Support smoking: Lark Cigarettes released this ad in 1970, targeting women who may be against their husband's nicotine habit
Washed up: Dixie Cups tells women to 'live a little' and step away from the sink before they look 'another day older' from doing housework
Worry-Free: Clairol's 1975 ad for Psssssst Instant Shampoo warns against feeling ugly and becoming depressed with greasy hair
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