Vintage Ads of the Past That Would Never Fly Today

In celebration of the incredible changes our society has made over the past few decades, we have compiled 40 of the most shocking vintage ads for you to browse through. They are sure to make you laugh and cringe in disbelief. Some may bring back nostalgic memories, but many will only cause your eyebrows to shoot up in shock. These vintage ads show how time changes everything and how our perceptions evolve along with its flow.

Surely this falls into the category of false advertising. It seems strange that they would use a baby in their advertisement when they know no one under the age of four should be consuming carbonated drinks.

While the message of picking more people than the usual car is acceptable, is it essential to be that sexualizing? Of course not. All in all, it is an ad with a good message but terrible execution.

Furthermore, this ad does not represent real-life women. Though these qualities are grand, no one can display them all the time – we’re all far more complex than that. Also, creating an ad about feminine wash should not focus on the qualities of a woman. It should talk about the benefits of using feminine wash in the first place.

This picture seems so backward by the standards of today’s generation. A person can wear whatever they want, regardless of whether it is pink, blue, or any other color for that matter. Why would anything other than personal taste come into decisions about color? The only thing you should care about is the function of each product.

This image of a woman gazing adoringly at a man’s shoe on the floor does not sit right with us. The theme of this ad is particularly unsettling in the sense that it has an apparent sexist message. If you want to create an advertisement about men’s footwear, then you should talk about it sensibly without depicting a woman in an undignified position.

If you look closely, you’ll see that it claims to have beneficial effects on your spine. Although using a hammock has some health benefits thanks to its relaxing effect, we can all agree that it cannot make your spine young.

You should not use untested medical claims in advertisements. Ads should never twist scientific findings or exaggerate evidence because this can lead people to believe the product’s promises on false grounds.

One look at this ad and you can probably guess that the slogan captivated people’s attention. Because of the double entendre contained within their motto, the company chose to use a female figure. Perhaps it was clever at the time, but by today’s standards, it’s awfully cliché.

Many modern treatment modalities can help manage alcohol addiction and its associated health risks. Detoxing is one of these treatments. It involves abstaining from alcohol or drinking only limited amounts to give the liver time to recover from damage incurred during chronic abuse.

With a popsicle no less! It is not hard to see the innuendo. Marketing back in the day really had an angle, didn’t it?

This ad is quite problematic. You’ll know if you look at the picture above. It shows a clear view of domestic violence. To think it is an ad for a coffee company – all we have to say is, wow. 

Drummond Sweaters thought it a wise idea to incorporate sexism into their ads. Sadly, this company couldn’t see how ridiculous it is. If a person or a company commits sexism in today’s generation, they are instantly judged for it and are at risk of falling prey to cancel culture.

Penicillin certainly has tremendous health benefits. However, prolonged exposure to this form of mold can cause health problems. You wouldn’t want to risk your life eating this moldy bread. Also, it’s just plain gross!

If you are selling a product, shouldn’t you focus on the features and benefits of that product? Wonder Bread is a famous brand, and many reviews say it’s soft, fluffy, and delicious. Thankfully, their ads have grown less sexist and more logical over the years!

Furthermore, nuclear weapons are considered “weapons of mass destruction,” because they cause great damage to a large area. Now, who on earth will do that? It’s too dangerous even to consider doing it. Will you pay to see this happening?

The maternity corset has been around for centuries, and it can be used as a tool for postpartum recovery. Using one can give you back the form and posture that pregnancy took away. They may even make breastfeeding easier because they support your back and pelvis.

The look on the face of the child on the left says it all. That company clearly didn’t value equality at the time this ad was produced. Ads like these only perpetuate stereotypes that need to be put to rest.

A clear pattern is emerging as we progress through this list. It was once perfectly normal for women to be treated as second-class citizens. This only goes to show how hard women have worked over the last few decades to fight back against this fallacious concept.

If you’re still stumped as to what they’re trying to get people to buy, it’s a telephone. An ad should entertain viewers and showcase the products the company is selling clearly and concisely. It needs to be creative and eye-catching to stand out among the other ads. The confusing nature of this ad is almost enough to make you forget about the sexism.

It’s safe to say that this ad encourages people to take care of their hygiene, and that’s a good thing. However, trying to convince women that their husbands wouldn’t cheat on them if only they scrubbed themselves clean enough is just cruel.

Our best bet is that this is a meme made to look like a vintage ad promoting demonic possession. The thing is, the real vintage ads we’ve been looking at are so wild that it doesn’t seem all that crazy for one to genuinely be advertising demonic possession!

It’s insulting to see a woman lying on the floor with a man’s foot on her head. This advertisement is incredibly demeaning to women, and we hope this kind of thinking never resurfaces again.

A baby should never be secured in such a condition as they would be at risk of suffocating. Babies are very vulnerable creatures that can be harmed by something like this, and they cannot communicate if they’re in trouble. This ad is incredibly irresponsible.

No matter how much this ad tries to make it sound like tobacco is good for you because doctors smoke it, the truth is that it is horrendous for your health. It’s essential to take responsibility for what we put in our bodies and not believe every marketing ploy we see or hear about. We should all avoid tobacco – there are far too many health risks.

Furthermore, the use of only women in the picture is another gender-based stereotype. Are men not responsible for practicing safe sex? What about “loose men” and their “loaded weapons” – where’s the ad campaign warning everyone against that?

Their ad alienates more than half of the population, so it’s not rational on any level. Thankfully, humanity has progressed to a time in which more voices can be heard on topics involving advertising and gender equality. Of course, we still have a long way to go, but there is hope!

Of course, people didn’t know about the risks of cigarettes back then, but surely they knew that babies and cigarettes don’t belong together. It seems evident that Marlboro was either oblivious or deliberately turning a blind eye to an issue that was (and still is) millions of children worldwide.

Some of the common effects of the drug include paranoia, loss of appetite, addiction, and psychotic behavior. If these side effects do not bother you, then you may well be the target market Lloyd Manufacturing was aiming their Cocaine Toothache Drops at.

Size is no longer considered the basis of healthiness, and people are encouraged to maintain a weight at which they feel healthy and confident. The strangest part of this ad is that the tonic isn’t a weight-gain product. It was meant to treat malaria.

Blowing smoke into someone’s face is about as rude as you can get. Can you imagine rushing out to buy a pack of cigarettes so you could try this trick? The results would, at least, be amusing to watch.

Anyone who’s seen the film Requiem for a Dream knows how bad of an idea it is to use amphetamine to stay fit and slim. This drug is present in ADHD medication as it can address the symptoms that accompany this condition. However, off-label use for weight loss is a terrible idea.

Eating too much butter is, as we all now know, the worst thing a person can do for their arteries and veins. Health concerns aside, the idea of eating massive sticks of butter with a fork is disturbing.

Here’s a wild idea: If you’re selling a car, why not tell people about the tangible benefits the vehicle will give you instead of trying to hijack their subconscious and trick them into thinking they want it?

Of course, as modern readers, we know that these are all false claims. If you want to treat your asthma, go and talk to your doctor about possible medications that are proven to work. It’s sad to think that people in the past would have wasted their time and money and risked their health on products like this.

We’re not even going to go into the message the soap brand was trying to convey here. This was part of the prevailing attitude at the time, and as awful as it is, it stands as a humbling reminder of how our society once was. If an ad like this came out today, there would be an uproar.

Levi’s may offer good quality, but this ad doesn’t tell you that. It doesn’t tell you a thing about the product. However, it does get people asking questions, so maybe it’s a good thing for getting the name to stick in people’s minds.

This may sound like we’re being too picky, but this message has been drummed into women for so long that many women experience anxiety at the mere thought of leaving the house without makeup. The fact that this was a product of advertising is infuriating.

Thankfully, society is moving beyond such prejudices toward new ideals of gender equality. No modern ad campaign could find success by featuring this sort of message, demonstrating how far we have already come.

Only a prejudiced person would think like this. Thankfully, companies have learned to avoid representing women in this way. However, we wonder how much of this change of heart was due to social pressure and how much was genuine.

A successful marriage starts with being in love, but it takes work to keep the spark alive. So this ad, which implies that it all begins in the kitchen, is ridiculous. Plus, it doesn’t even market its product well.

“Promotes active lifestyle” and “gives body essential sugars”; both sound like huge assets to a baby’s health and of course your baby is going to have “guaranteed happiness” when you’re handing them a syrupy sugar filled drink. The fact this ad was promoted to babies makes us want to question whoever was in charge of health back then.

This leaves the viewer to come to their own conclusions which in this case seems very distasteful. Does this woman have cancer? Is she suffering from alopecia? Either way, we have to question why the advertiser thought it would be a good idea to take a woman with no hair and make her look overly happy to own a product with which she is physically not able to use.

Believe it or not there were a lot of different variations of this ad in the past and they had a lot in common. Majority of the ads promised a lot of the same things like “hypnotism in under 30 seconds”,  and “hypno-coin’s” which were pocket size inventions to help the process of hypnotizing.

So imagine, Mom finally takes a second to sit down, take a breather, and bask in the fruits of her labor. She opens her eyes and is met with her gift…a vacuum. Lucky Mom, we are sure she will react just like the woman in the ad.

Not only is it distasteful to show the revolver in bed with a child stating “Papa says it won’t hurt us”, it then goes on to state “Accidental Discharge Impossible” which we all know is not a guarantee. It should not go unnoticed this same gun was used to assassinate President William McKinely in 1901 and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

Apparently back in the day no one had a little black dress and the answer to any fashion emergency was a simple brown potato sack. Believe it or not the worst aspect of this ad is not the fact they are trying to sell a potato sack as a dress, it’s the fact they are targeting men who want to make the woman they are with look like a literal sack of potatoes. Let that sink in.

Thank goodness her husband was willing to forgive her fatal fopaux and offered her a cold beer instead. It may be the time period of this ad, but we get the feeling he followed up this “nice gesture” with a “so when should I expect dinner?”

What was it with media creators during this time period that made them think taking jabs at women’s hygiene would create an upsell of their companies products? This ad took the fear of a woman losing her husband to a whole new low.

Kellogs PEP vitamins were naturally the only solution to this problem. This ad just reenforces that back in this time period women were brought up to believe that no matter what they got accomplished, they’re could have always been more.

Comedian Cris Shapan has mastered the art of creating humor in the form of imagined vintage print advertisements. Not only does he play on peoples gullibility he understands that because of the time period a lot of these offensive ads were published what he us portraying in his art doesn’t seem that outlandish.