oh, the love and the hate

Our lovely intern, Tina, found these old ads in the midst of her research for our forthcoming Feminism and Pop Culture book (fall 2009). What can you even say about these? It's like pure delight and horror mixed into one concise ad campaign. You can't not love the hair, the poses, the essence of the 60s. But what about the women who read these ads? Did they really feel so liberated? If you were a woman of the 60s and this campaign spoke to you back then I so want to hear from you.


Just in case you can't read this caption it says, "In 1915, Mrs. Cynthia Robinson was caught smoking in the cellar behind the preserves. Although she was 34, her husband sent her straight to her room."



This one is all about how these poor women of the 1910s had to sneak around, and the blurb next to the woman says, "Is it just a normal ordinary cigarette we call a woman's cigarette? No. We tailor it for women. We tailor it for the feminine hand. Virginia Slims are slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke. They have the kind of flavor women like---rich, mild Virgina flavor."


Fun distraction for a ridiculously rainy day out here.

Happy weekend.

---Brooke