Shocking Vintage Ads That Were Actually Printed

Time marches on, but progress is the one way to measure society and humanity. How do you know if things get better or not? It’s best to compare situations from the past that were normal to see if they fit in with today’s standards. Therefore, many vintage ads haven’t withstood the test of time. They often project chauvinistic ideas that would bring controversy today.

Below, you can see an interesting look at the past to show you how much life has changed. Some are cringe-worthy, but others aren’t. Regardless, you get an idea of what it was like decades ago.

Alcoa Aluminum – 1965

This advertisement showed how easy it was to open Alcoa Aluminum caps. However, they made it seem like it had to be easy, or else a woman couldn’t do it. That’s slightly chauvinistic and pig-headed, but that’s what it was like in 1965.

McDonald’s – 1965

Here, you can see an advertisement for McDonald’s “All American” meal. It showed a hamburger, milkshake, and French fries and only cost 52 cents. If you wanted the shake to be a dessert, you could add another beverage. Overall, a full meal was much less than $1.

Tipalet – 1960s

This advertisement shows men that they should blow cigarette smoke into a woman’s face to keep her captivated. It’s highly outdated because it shows misogyny, but it also gratifies smoking, which is highly unhealthy. There’s no way it could run today!

Schlitz Beer – 1960s

This Schlitz Beer advert makes people realize that pop tabs weren’t always the most popular choice. Could you imagine getting a can opener to crack a cold brew? Luckily, companies are more innovative and make it easier!

Columbia Records – 1970s

It’s hard to believe that someone could get 13 tapes or records for only $1.00. If you joined the club, you got an excellent price, and those sold individually would add up significantly. Much has changed!

Ohio Carriage Company – 1900s

It’s hard to tell immediately from the ad, but The Ohio Carriage Company was ahead of its time. It uses the advert to show that it doesn’t employ children. Plus, it offered a 30-day trial for the Split Hickory Buggy. What more could you need?!

7-Up – 1960s

It’s odd to think that brands could make bold claims like this soda advertisement did. If you drink 7-Up, you get a burst of energy that can help you become better at ping-pong, bowling, and more. Plus, it only takes two to six minutes. However, the confusion stems from the woman posing.

Marilyn Monroe Firework Safety – 1950s

We’re not sure why Marilyn Monroe is in a swimsuit with a seductive pose or how that helps people focus on safety during the 4th of July. However, it likely caught many people’s attention, so it must have done its job!

General Electric – 1980s

Most people hit the “snooze” button on their alarm clocks, and advertisements rarely focus on that as a new feature. However, GE changed it all when it introduced the high-tech alarm clock. Who could have known it would become so popular?!

Modern Hair Styling – 1950s

This ad from the ’50s showcases what modern hairstyles were for men. Some of them have gone in and out of style a few times throughout the decades. However, it’s still interesting to see them evolve and come back!

Budweiser – 1950s

This Budweiser advert is interesting. First, it points out that wives weren’t included in a boy’s night poker game. However, they still had to be stocked with snacks and beers. Then, it takes credit for the wife having a good memory.

Hormel – 1970s

During the ’70s, many people felt the hard economic times when they went grocery shopping. Hormel marketed to that, promising a meal with meat without the high price. It must have worked because the brand is still around today!

Leggs – 1970s

Many ads are sexist, but this is just wrong. It dehumanizes a woman, showing that men should walk all over them because of a pair of pants. That’s crazy, but it’s even stranger that the ad ran. Nothing like that could be seen today!

Nichols Industries Inc – 1950s

Realistic gun toys aren’t possible today with the many news stories depicting children shooting others. However, the 1950s were different, and this company played on the realistic sound and features. Gun violence wasn’t as prevalent then, though.

Kohler Bathroom Fixtures – 1960s

This bathroom screams 1960s aesthetic, but that’s okay because it was a Kohler’s ad from that period. Still, it’s funny to think about a company advertising avocado-colored appliances. Hopefully, those toilets and tub don’t make a comeback!

Airflow Company – 1980s

Sex sells, even in the 1980s. Though you probably enjoy the scene, it doesn’t do much to focus on the computer hardware. Most people would keep the air conditioning off if their employees walked around like that. Overall, it’s awkward!

Sears – 1910s

It’s hard to believe that Sears sold houses, but you also wonder how a 12-bedroom home could cost $6,000! While things were simpler back then and incomes were smaller, it’s still an oddity and something most people can’t even dream about.

Cigar Institute of America – 1960s

The 1960s seemed to like comparing modern men to cavemen and treating women like property. This brand thought that men might smoke its cigars if they felt that primal need to go back to clubs. Plus, they could get their own cavewoman.

Sears Pikes Peak Hill – 1960s

There’s something wholesome about this illustrated advert showcasing the Sears Pike Peak Hill Climb toy. You can feel the wonder within the children, and the family seems excited. It actually looks impressive.

Lucky Tiger Hair Tonic – 1950s

Lucky Tucker Hair Tonic showcased this ad in the ’50s, promising men their pick of the women if they used the product. That’s not how things work, but the ad campaign still ran for a while.

Tart-Chestnut Co – 1930s

The name of the Tart-Chestnut product wasn’t considered inappropriate at the time. However, it’s the perfect example of how word meanings change over time. “Big Tits” is the nickname of the chip company, but that’s not true now!

Sony – 1960s

While smartphones are the rage now, people used to carry heavy equipment to record things on video. Clearly, the man is videotaping a bird’s nest, but it still seems a little creepy that he’s in a tree. Maybe he captured something else!

Kellogg’s – 1930s

Kellogg’s, the popular cereal manufacturer, chose to sell vitamins in the 1930s. However, they were marketed by telling husbands that their wives would be more energetic and look cuter after using them. Thankfully, this marketing tactic is not used anymore!

Toothache Drops – 1885

Many people don’t realize that cocaine was legal in 1885 and was even advertised! These toothache drops contained the drug, and you could buy them at any local pharmacy. You even see kids on the advert!

Camel – 1940s

It’s hard to believe a cigarette maker is using a doctor to promote its product. Camel released an advert claiming that more doctors smoke that brand than other cigarettes. This couldn’t work today, and most doctors don’t promote smoking!

Sony – 1980s

The Sony Walkman was highly popular in the ’80s and ’90s. This ad captures the decade perfectly. You can see the clothing styles, roller skates, and portable cassette player, but the hairstyle makes it perfect.

Bell and Howell Projector – 1950s

Below, you can see another example of how companies tried promoting products with sex appeal and women’s bodies. The main focus here is Sabrina’s chest. We’re not sure what it has to do with the color slide projector!

Plymouth – 1940s

One significant difference between ads then and now is the amount of text included in each one. Who has time to read all of that information while they’re glancing at the paper or magazine? It’s mind-boggling!

Out Of The Closet Inc – 1970s

While we give credit to the brand for trying to normalize LGBTQ+ in those difficult times, this doll is highly offensive by today’s standards. “Gay Bob” was marketed as the first gay doll for everyone. It seems nice initially, but it’s highly problematic!

Radio Shack – 1970s

Radio Shack used to be the one-stop shop to buy the best technological products on the market at the time. However, Best Buy and other large corporations crushed it, causing it to declare bankruptcy multiple times before it went out of business.

McDonald’s – 1970s

At the time (in the ’70s), McDonald’s was probably trying to be inclusive to African Americans. However, an advertisement like that couldn’t fly today because of the many racial stereotypes. It’s just unacceptable!

Larsen Company – 1949

There’s nothing culturally offensive to see here, but it’s very unappealing. Who wants to buy five vegetables in one can?! It’s hard to believe the brand sold any of them, and this idea wouldn’t fly today.

Schlitz Beer – 1950s

Here’s another sexist advert from Schlitz Beer. You see a young wife who is upset because she burnt dinner. However, her husband “comforts” her by saying it’s okay because she didn’t burn the beer. How rude!

Western Electric – 1950s

It’s interesting to see the type of phone Western Electric thought would be in the future. It wasn’t far off, but the brand still couldn’t think of the cordless phone that early. Is the person who created the ad alive today? What do they think about smartphones?!

Martini & Rossi – 1960s

We’re not sure what’s happening in this advert. The brand seems to be comparing the woman in the cage to its products. Maybe a man could trap a woman in the cage after plying her with alcohol? Regardless, it’s not a good ad!

Honda – 1970s

It’s unbelievable that an ad like that was ever approved or created. What does Honda mean by “a woman’s car?” We aren’t sure, but then it goes further by saying that women don’t understand them. Overall, it’s based solely on gender and was pretty offensive!

7-Up – 1950s

This type of ad could never run today. The advert for 7-Up shows a baby drinking soda. That’s highly unhealthy and could lead to stomach problems and issues later in life. It’s pretty wild to imagine that soda-makers marketed their beverages to kids!

Texaco – 1943

Texaco imagined a world where kids had to ask who Hitler was because he was no longer part of their daily lives. At the time, he was committing genocide. It showed solidarity and hope for the future!

Van Heusen – 1950s

Holy moly! Van Heusen employed classist tropes to make its brand seem upper class, and it was a little offensive to tribal men. While it’s nice to dress up, you should never make fun of another culture’s dress code. This would never fly now!

Best Buy – 1999

Who could forget all the craziness at the end of 1999? Everyone worried that computers would stop working because of “Y2K.” Here’s a throwback advert that reminds us of the panic people felt while they tried celebrating the new millennium.

Panasonic Flip N’ Style Hair Dryer

This ad is absolutely ridiculous. Why on earth did they think it was a good idea to market a hair dryer using an image of a woman without any hair? It just seems like a terrible marketing choice, why not actually showcase the results the product can produce instead?

Gillette Safety Razor

Here’s another really bizarre choice: marketing a razor with an ad featuring a baby. Why? Maybe they thought it was a good way to market that their “safety razor” is so safe, you can even use it on a baby? It’s just odd, and we really don’t think that this would make the cut today.

Colt Christmas Gift Ad

While there isn’t anything really inherently wrong with this particular ad, it really is a good reflection of how much American society has changed. Since the rise of mass shootings had only become more of an issue as of late, it’s pretty unlikely that a gun company would advertise their products as a nice little Christmas gift for yourself.

Love Cosmetics

As seen with the Balenciaga ad scandal, today’s consumers are really not okay with using children in advertisements that are suggestive, no matter how subtle. In this case, this Love Cosmetics ad is not even subtle at all, with a tagline of “innocence is sexier than you think,” this ad would certainly cause a major stir today.

Soda Pop Board of America

Who knew there was even a Soda Pop Board of America at all? Now for the crazy part: this ad was actually recommending that parents “start Cola earlier” in their kids diet. Considering that children do not need to be drinking soda at all, this ad would absolutely never fly today.

Van Heusen “Man’s World”

Van Heusen is back at it again with the problematic ads. In this ad, we see a woman literally on her knees serving her husband breakfast as he lies back soaking it all in. It’s not even clear what this ad is even for besides putting down women.

Philip Morris Born Gentle

Here is yet another example of a shocking advertisement that incorporated babies into an ad for a wildly inappropriate product. Why on earth would you try to sell cigarettes while showing a mother holding her baby?

Marlboro Baby

Philip Morris wasn’t the only one…you might have heard of the Marlboro Man, but what about the Marlboro Baby? Here was have an ad showing a baby encouraging his mother to light up a Marlboro so she can calm down and maybe not scold him. That’s a great message to everyone, right?

World’s Largest Lemons

This ad is certainly in the running for most sexist advertisement of the bunch. This Quick Way Bar Mix ad includes a silly innuendo where they promise that they use the world’s largest, ripest, and juiciest lemons to make their product, while instead of showcasing said product, instead they chose to use an image of a scantily clad woman. Really mature, guys.

Fairy Soap

This horrifying ad would never be allowed to run today, and quite frankly should have never been allowed to run in the first place. This blonde child is asking the black child “why doesn’t your mamma wash you with fairy soap?” insinuating that her color is something “dirty” that needs to be cleaned off. This is absolutely disgusting.

Hamlin’s Wizard Oil

Although there has been a resurgence of misinformation relating to essential oils being used instead of approved medications, this is certainly nothing new. As we can see in this ad for Hamlin’s Wizard Oil, it was purported to cure rheumatism as well as a litany of other ailments. We doubt that this Wizard Oil did anything except make the company rich.

Chase & Sanborn Coffee

This gross ad is promoting domestic violence, and is frankly pretty shocking to see today. Chase & Sanborn Coffee thought it would be a good idea to show a man spanking his wife for “not store-testing for fresher coffee,” and getting stale coffee instead.

Charles Antell Formula 9 and Shampoo

This ad is shockingly intense for no good reason. It shows a woman holding a gun to her head, while there’s a noose around her neck, and with the other hand holding a bottle of poison. Why? Because she says that if her hairs looks bad one more time, she’ll kill herself. It’s a pretty sick use of downplaying suicide to try to sell a product.

Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic

Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic was a fever remedy made from quinine in a syrup, which meant that it was not actually tasteless at all, and many even said it was pretty nasty as well. This ad is quite bizarre as well, it’s unclear why they would superimpose a child’s head onto the body of a pig, why would that sell more of this product?

Keep Her Where She Belongs

This ad was a fail on multiple accounts, but first and foremost because we have no idea what the product is (is it the shoe?) and what company it was for. The other shocking aspect of this ad is the fact that it insinuates that a woman should be kept “where she belongs,” which is apparently on the floor with a shoe.

Mattel M-16 Marauder

It’s pretty crazy to see this advertisement from the company that we all associate with Barbie dolls. However, the company decided to try to market to young boys with the toy M-16 Marauder rifle. Once again, due to the very real mass shooting crisis in America, this ad would never cut it these days.

Hoover Vacuum Cleaner

This Hoover ad is truly sad, as it implies that a housewife will be “happier” with a Hoover vacuum cleaner rather than a gift that is actually for her to enjoy. No no, why not just get her a cleaning appliance so she can keep on cleaning the house?

Code Breaker

This ad is for a cheating device called Code Breaker, and it was mainly used for video games for PlayStation and PlayStation 2. This ad not only encourages cheating on your spouse, it really trivializes women and uses sexism in the worst way to promote their product.

Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter

Once again, we see a truly absurd ad that is not even clear what they’re trying to advertise. What is clear is that they are posing the question “is it always illegal to kill a woman?” which completely downplays and trivializes violence against women, which is absolutely never okay.

Diamond Dyes

We see what Diamond Dyes was trying to do in this ad, but we must say it’s pretty macabre for a run of the mill ad for dye products. This ad would be more appropriate for a horror film rather than for a dye.