vintage ads promoting weight gain

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

... TO ANOTHER - AND NO WONDER FEMININITY IS CONFUSED!

With a diet industry worth $60.9 billion in the U.S. alone it is almost impossible to imagine a world when being skinny was a bad thing but these ads, published in magazines and newspapers from the thirties to the 1960s show how weight gain was aspired to then as earnestly as weight loss is today.

Demonstrating an attitude that could not be more removed from the current vogue for size zero, the ads promote supplements promising speedy weight gain for a sexier body.

'I feel swell': Fifties ads show how weight gain was once aspired to as much as we now hope for weight loss

Photographs of buxom models who would not look out of place on Mad Men appear alongside statements like: 'I feel so swell' and 'If you want to be popular, you can't afford to be skinny'. One ad, for Ironized Yeast tablets, showing one such bikini-clad beauty, leads with the quote: 'Men wouldn't look at me when I was skinny... But since I gained 10 pounds this new, easy way, I have all the dates I want.'

 Another states: 'Skinny girls are not glamour girls.'

 

One, promising 'an easy way to add 5-15lb' even features a man, gazing at a reclining woman. The text alongside reads: 'A skinny man hasn't a chance. I wish I could gain flesh.'

 

Plus-size beauties: Demonstrating an attitude that could not be more far removed from the current vogue for size zero, the ads promote supplements promising speedy weight gain for a sexier body

Star turn: One detail that is not so far removed from the ads of today, is the celebrity endorsement. An ad for Wate-On, a 'liquid emulsion', features Sixties siren Linda Peck

One detail that is not so far removed from the ads of today, is the celebrity endorsement. An ad for Wate-On, a 'liquid emulsion', features 'exciting new actress Eva Six'. She tells readers: 'Don't let them call you skinny.'

The same product also uses Sixties siren Linda Peck for another ad.

While there is clearly a stark difference in desired body shape - Forties and Fifties women aspired to slim waists with full chests and hips.

Fuller-figures: Actress Eva Six endorses a different Wate-On ad (top), while another sees a skinny man yearn for a bigger build so that he can attract women (bottom)

 

Quick fix: The ads all promise fast solutions to weight-gain with phrases like 'stop being skinny and tired'

Less exercise and a diet higher in fat, corn syrup and alcohol has made keeping the pounds off a challenge.

In contrast, a typical 1949 diet, while similar in calories, heavy on vegetables and complex carbohydrates, which are digested slowly, keep blood sugar levels stable and are filling. Post-war women also burned more calories through housework and having to walk or cycle everywhere.

Ken Fox, professor of exercise and health science at the University of Bristol, blames car and television ownership in the Fifties for the shift in lifestyle. 'It was in this period that active lifestyles began to decline and car ownership started to increase,' he said. 'We were sold the message that labour-saving was the way to go. Also, there were more attractive sedentary activities - especially when TV came along.'