Outdated Advertising

This outrageous collection of inappropriate ads will have you turning the pages and shaking your head in disbelief.
Outdated Advertising: Memories from a Less-than-PC Era takes a look at print advertising from the mid-1850s through the 1980s with an eye toward ads that were notorious for their sexist, racist, politically-incorrect, or other wildly inappropriate content—or for just plain bad taste. Among the dozens of full-color examples, readers will find: • a woman being spanked by her husband for not buying the right coffee
• the story of a mother having to turn her child over to an orphanage because her late husband didn’t keep up his life insurance payments
• Aunt Jemima declaring “Happy days is here!” because of her new pancake recipe
• doctors promoting particular brands of cigarettes
• the Michael Jackson Rainbow Brite portable record player with the copy line, “Gifts to keep children singing.”

Advertising has changed over the decades—that is a major understatement. Despite the nostalgia of such shows as Mad Men, the outrageous images in Outdated Advertising show readers just how far we’ve come since then.