Vintage Ads That Were Once Socially Acceptable That Would Get Brands Canceled Today

Company: Lipton Tea
Year Released: 1942 

Lipton Tea was, we assume they thought, telling hard truths. While your husband would still leave you eventually because you couldn’t make tea, Lipton would at least soften the blow and slow that impending doom. Or something. This 1940s ad was an example of advertisers trying to be witty and missing the mark.

This Won't Happen @historydaily/Pinterest

Lipton Tea is still pretty popular as one of the best-selling teas in the world. It hasn’t been slowed by its track record of cringeworthy ads, as Lipton has a brand value, as of 2022, of around $10.57 billion. That’s nearly $2 billion more than its 2018 net value.

Company: Total Cereal
Year Released: 1971 

Lizzo would write some pretty vicious bars about this little ad, which General Mills released for its Total Cereal brand in 1971. Just think—you could eat cereal, clean the house, and not gain weight. Total would watch your vitamins while you weighed yourself to stay slim.

Your Daily Workout @historydaily/Pinterest

Total’s great and all, but this ad isn’t exactly body-positive. An ad like this would get excoriated on social media and blogs. While Total is full of vitamins and, admittedly, is a pretty healthy breakfast choice when compared to sugary cereals out there, we’re glad General Mills has abandoned this ad campaign.

Company: Sears
Year Released: 1970s 

If Sears thought this was “chubby” in the ‘70s, they should see the kids walking around today. Sure, childhood obesity is a huge issue in the world (i.e. America), but Tracy Harper didn’t deserve this, because she wasn’t even remotely chubby. She just looks like a kid. This ‘70s ad was showing off “fashionably, chubby size[d]” clothing.

Poor Tracy Harper @historydaily/Pinterest

The ad isn’t geared toward the Tracy Harpers of the world, and we hope Tracy didn’t even see this casually cruel piece of work. It’s geared towards mothers buying clothes for their “chubby” daughters. Sears went out of business because of bad management in the late 2000s. At least, before going under, the department store ditched the body-shaming ads.

Company: Procter & Gamble (Lestoil)
Year Released: 1968 

“Women of the future will make the Moon a cleaner place to live.” Where to start with this ad? Lestoil was a cleaning product made by Procter & Gamble, and apparently, it was the cleaning product of the future, as you could use it to shine the surface of the Moon’s arid, gray rocks.

The Future Is Clean ©KMphoto/alamy

Of course, it wouldn’t be astronauts or scientists sent up to the Moon colony first—we’d send Women Cleaners, as they would get the place habitable. Lestoil is now mostly used for heavy-duty household stains (the stains that make you consider ripping up the entire carpet), rather than hypothetical Moon colonies. 

Company: Post
Year Released: 1950s  

Who knew Grape Nuts had a fat-shaming history? Post’s cereal might have seemed the most boring of the bunch, but Grape Nuts was going overboard in the fifties with its “Like mother, like daughter ad.” Grape Nuts, according to Post, was a great protein cereal because it would help keep you thin.

©Retro AdArchives/Alamy

Post Grape Nuts are a pretty healthy cereal, as they’re lower in sugar than a lot of the unhealthy breakfast foods we see lining the aisles of supermarkets. These “lose weight or else” cereal ads would continue into the 1970s before the ‘80s showed them the door.  

Company: Beach Jeans
Year Released: 1960s 

At first, looking at the photo, you’d think this ad was showing off some plaid short shorts for men, which would be unusually progressive for the 1960s (the decade we’re guessing Beach Jeans released this). Beach Jeans was showing off its SceneJeans, and it used the questionable slogan, “Male makes it exciting.”

@historydaily/Pinterest

The caption says that these “sexy new” jeans were made from “rugged man stuff!” And they said that without a bit of irony, either. This ad has everything from the sixties—a man in tight pants, a groovy disco woman, and a lot of loud fonts. 

Company: Delta
Year Released: 1970s 

Being an airline stewardess in the seventies was pretty rough, we assume. You had to deal with insane weight and height requirements, and the airline was pretty blatant about the fact that you were eye candy. Take this ad from Delta, for example, which labeled its stewardesses “4 good reasons” that Delta’s “the best thing” to happen to “air travel.”

Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

Delta tried to soften the headline with a paragraph about how the flight attendants “personify the spirit” of the airline (whatever that means), but, considering the time and context, it’s pretty clear what this ad is advertising and how it’s doing it.   

Company: Heinz
Year Released: 1950

If your husband yawns at the dinner table, it’s because you’re not feeding him Heinz Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup. This ad from 1951 was pulled from an issue of National Home Monthly. The ad gets worse when you zoom in, as one of the first lines is a semi-lamentation that husbands “have stopped beating their wives.”

The Things Women Have To Put Up With @rebekka5616/Pinterest

Or have they? If they get fed the wrong soup, these “sensitive souls[s]” might just snap. The fifties must have been a stressful time to be a woman, as it doesn’t seem like serious issues, such as domestic violence, were even taken remotely seriously.     

Company: Listerine Antiseptic
Year Released: 1949

In 2018, Listerine’s annual sales exceeded $354 million, making it the most-used mouthwash brand in America. Listerine has never been afraid to spend a lot on ads, and it has an ad budget of $111 million. It’s been throwing ads at the American public for years, and it has changed with the times.

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Thankfully, or Listerine would see its stock plummet if it released an ad like this 1949 one warning women that, “It could happen to you.” This ominous admonishment referred to bad breath, of course, something that only women have. Don’t worry ladies, as Listerine was here to save the day for post-WWII damsels in need of man.     

Company: Easy Spindrier
Year Released: 1940s 

Well, this ad from the 1940s isn’t as bad as it could be. Though the husband is saying that he’s “a mother” because he’s doing laundry and dealing with the kids, he at least admits that his wife, “Helen,” has a harder job than he does at the office.

©Retro AdArchives/Alamy

The Easy Spindrier promised to do a week’s wash in under an hour. One Spindrier barrel washed the load, while the other spun it dry. The Spindrier was the hot new item when it came out in the 1940s, and, to be fair, the ad was right—it did make the wash more convenient. 

Company: Cricketeer
Year Released: 1970

Cricketeer was a clothing company that sold, you guessed it, polyester suits. It ran its ads in the late 1960s and early 1970s, usually in magazines like Playboy. Often, their ads tried to be funny, and people in the seventies probably did get a chuckle out of ways you could avoid marrying “The Girl.”

JocelinAlbor/Pinterest

Some of these jokes are a little smirk-inducing, but this ad, funny or not, would definitely go over like a lead balloon these days. In addition to its ads, Cricketeer should be remembered for its strange, stretchy suits that promised to be so flexible, you could put your legs behind your head while wearing them without causing a rip. 

Company: Morris Oxford
Year Released: 1949

Morris Oxford, for those who aren’t familiar with British cars, was a series produced by the U.K.’s Morris from 1913 until 1935 and 1948 until 1971. Its models included the Farina Oxfords and Oxford, and the company was later succeeded by Morris Marina.

©Retro AdArchives/Alamy

This post-WWII vintage ad promised that both men and women would like the Morris Oxford. Women wanted aesthetic things, according to the ad, such as “gay colors” and a “really large luggage trunk,” while men wanted a car that actually ran. Together, the ad said, men and women could team up to buy the perfect car (an Oxford).

Company: Lux Dish Soap
Year Released: 1950s 

Lux Dish Soap was a common site during the 1950s and 1960s, and it seemed as though every kitchen had Lux’s dishwashing liquid. The brand promised that it was the “next best thing to a dishwashing machine,” promising women, specifically, that they could “get out of the kitchen” quicker if they used Lux.

The Next Best Thing to a Dishwashing Machine @workandmoney/Pinterest

Really, at the time, dishwashers hadn’t taken off as a must-have appliance, so this Lux ad made sense. It wasn’t until the ’40s that dishwashers could even dry the dishes. By the 1970s, dishwashers became a necessity, and, now, around three-quarters of U.S. households have a dishwasher. 

Company: Budweiser
Year Released: 1956 

This ad is confusing. Who is the Inner Man? What’s his relationship to the Outer Man? This Budweiser ad, which ran the slogan, “Where there’s life…There’s Bud!” talked about a bride marrying “two men” with the “Inner Man” far harder to keep content.

Delighted More Husbands Than Any Other @elltrebor66/Pinterest

This ad could also double as a way to hawk a sci-fi movie about a man with another man living in his brain. Of course, Budweiser was trying to put its beer over the competition, and this tactic seems to have worked for the multinational brand. Budweiser has a brand value of $16.17 billion as of 2021.