Katie Scanlan • Blog

Vintage ads and their products have always intrigued me. I particularly find the parallels of today’s beauty advertising and the beauty ads and products from over 50 years ago to be fascinating. The craze of products like Jergen’s Natural Glow Moisturizer a few years ago popularized self tanning all over again. If you were looking for a sun-kissed glow back in 1929, all you had to do was reach for a bottle of Cotytan’s liquid tanner and you were set. I’m sure it probably produced some sort of god-awful orange colour, but hey… they were onto something.

Then there’s the type of ads that appeal to the viewer’s emotions. Even back in the 1930’s they were doing this to sell products such as perfume, among many other things.  In the ad below, a scantily clad Marilyn-esque woman is flanked by the words “you can’t buy love”. It’s interesting that love and romance have been (and likely always will be) such popular themes with products like these. 

Some advertising is simply a reminder of how far along society has come. Despite its sexist undertone, I still find this ad from 1947 quite charming.

Finally, the use of celebrity endorsement within advertising is actually quite an old idea. Here’s the one and only, Marilyn Monroe for Westmore Hollywood Cosmetics in the 1950’s. 

Almost 60 years later, celebrities within advertising are more popular than ever.