A image dump because I feel like it

I've been hard at work on part 2 on the R100 and R101 - it should be done soon - but I have to make a quick post about Life readings. I'm in the middle 1960s now - the middle of the decade is filled with news about Vietnam, mostly - but something weird is happening with the ads. They are becoming more overtly sexist - or at least a lot more gender normative.

Not really sure why. It could be ads are targeting specific genders more, and naturally reveals more sexist and normative attitudes. Sex of course was always used to sell things, but in the sixties it becomes a lot more...overt.

If I were an academic I could probably explain it all, but all I really have to say about this is that I'm a little surprised. I figured these things would get better, not worse as time went on. But as it is, the 1930s and World War 2 actually look better than what came after. Maybe it is just another example of American culture after the normative 1950s going every which way at once. A third theory might be that now these things are being discussed, it is only natural that the ads picked up on it and tried to join the conversation (and sell stuff.)

Many cocks cokes to choose from!

It remains a golden time for illustration in ads. I've collected many a car ad but I'll leave them off this time, save one, and that's because of the truly amazing ad copy:

 

Kate Archer!

AC spark plugs had an excellent run during this era.

Bad Ad Copy: This ad for a Jimmy Stewart movie up and down the page on either side. I challenge you to read it and not get a little creep'd out.

Speaking of creepy:

An ad for moms, to remind them sugar is a thing.

I just finished watching the TV series "Breaking Bad" for the first time, and I think the driver has a distinct Walter White thing going on.

Honda has been advertising for a few years now in Life, being very distinctly counter-counter-culture with the slogan "You meet the nicest people on a Honda!" The Honda above became a big hit in North America (it would go on to sell more copies around the world than the Model T Ford) and its succsess brought Suzuki and an Italian firm to North America:

 Why, yes, I am a fan of reality, the past, and the present!

Also, ads have started appearing of my favorite car of the era: the 1960s Lincoln Continental. If you've never seen it before, know this: it is gorgeous, it weighed three tons, it had a two speed automatic transmission, and got 8 mpg in town and maybe 9 on the highway.

 

 While most ads are aspirational, the Lincoln were pretty open about their car being for for upper-class people.

Another era, another full page of nothing but ad copy:

The trunk looks like it could hold a few corpses, but that is, well, true. It has less room than you might think, though: its use of space was not the best, so most of the trunk is rectangular, but shallow.

If you look like Jackie Kennedy and drive your three ton luxury car down your own private road everyday just to get your mail, you just might be upper class. 

The ad copy here manages to be a little too true - Lincoln never really found great styling after this car. Nowadays a fully restored one costs around $20K, with dingier examples going for much less than that, which is a steal, as far as classic cars go.

OK, one more image: a surprising reminder that computer science used to have a 50/50 gender split.