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Outdated Advertising

Sexist, Racist, Creepy, and Just Plain Tasteless Ads from a Pre-PC Era

Edited by Michael Lewis and Stephen Spignesi / Foreword by Ben B. Budd Jr.

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Outdated Advertising: Memories from a Less-than-PC Era takes a look at print advertising from the mid-1850s through the 1980s with an eye toward ads that were notorious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 Despite the nostalgia of such shows as Mad Men, the outrageous images in Outdated Advertising show readers just how far we’ve come since then.
    • Publisher: Skyhorse (November 21, 2017)
    • Length: 168 pages
    • ISBN13: 9781510723801

    "Page after page, you will find yourself asking "how could they print THAT?" They say hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes it is also amusing, ironic, interesting, and even disgraceful. Our ever-changing social standards of what is appropriate in media could fill a book—this book."—Dr. Brian King, comedian and psychologist

    "Page after page, you will find yourself asking "how could they print THAT?" They say hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes it is also amusing, ironic, interesting, and even disgraceful. Our ever-changing social standards of what is appropriate in media could fill a book—this book."—Dr. Brian King, comedian and psychologist

    Outdated Advertising

    Sexist, Racist, Creepy, and Just Plain Tasteless Ads from a Pre-PC Era

    Edited by Michael Lewis and Stephen Spignesi / Foreword by Ben B. Budd Jr.