Unbelievable Old Newspaper Ads That Show Just How Times Have Changed

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John Summers • Contributor
Sep 22, 2024 9:00 PM EDT

Oh, how times have changed, and mostly for the better! Yes, I know it's easy to complain about how things used to be better and everything is terrible now, but that is just not true! Literally everything is better now—human rights, standards of living, healthcare, reduced crime rates, level of education—everything is better than it was in the previous century. And that's a fact! Is the world perfect now? Absolutely not, but if you think you would have been better off fifty or a hundred years ago, you are just looking at reality through rose-tinted glasses.

One place you can easily see how far we have come is in old newspaper ads. Women were expected to do nothing but please their husbands, kids were fed horrific things, every other culture was a subject of ridicule, and smoking was considered not only cool but healthy! Take a look at these ads and tell me life used to be better.

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  • 01
    Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer!" Schlitz
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  • 02
    Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere. Hit her with tangy Tipalet Cherry. Or rich, grape-y Tipalet Burgundy. Or luscious Tipalet Blueberry. It's Wild! Tipalet. It's new. Different. Delicious in taste and in aroma. Apuff in her direction and she'll follow you, anywhere. Oh yes...you get smoking satisfaction without inhaling smoke. Smokers of America, TIPALET TIPALETTIPALET TIPALET do yourself a flavor. Make your next cigarette a Tipalet: New from Muriel. About 5 for 25.
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  • 03
    Guard Against Throat Scratch enjoy the smooth smoking of fine tobaccos ...smoke PALL MALL the cigarette whose mildness you can measure PALL MALL FAMOUS CIGARETTES PARTICULAR Study This Puff Chart: PUFF BY PUFF...YOU'RE ALWAYS AHEAD WITH PALL MALL The further your cigarette Eers the smoke through fine obces, the milder that unek be Again her 3 pulls of each cite your 17 Pall Mall's greater length of youre the extre length for extre mild fine tebecces still travels the smoke further comes At the f
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  • 04
    To keep a slender figure No one can deny... Reach for a LUCKY instead of a sweet LUCKY STRIKE "IT'S TOASTED" CIGARETTES "It's toasted" No Throat Irritation-No Cough.
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  • 05
    OOVER Give her a Mover and you the best Christmas morning she'll be happier with a Hoover P.S. THE HOOVER COMPANY HOOVER HOOV wa
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    COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS Instantaneous Cure! PRICE 15 CENTS. Prepared by the LLOYD MANUFACTURING CO. 219 HUDSON AVE., ALBANY, N. Y. For sale by all Druggists. (Registered March 1885). See other alde
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    BEGIN EARLY SHAVE YOURSELF Gillette Safety NO STROPPING NO HONING Razor THE WM. R. BURKHARD CO. SPORTING GOODS ST. PAUL, MINN.
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  • 08
    Kelly's PEP SO THE HARDER A WIFE WORKS, THE CUTER SHE LOOKS! GOSH, HONEY, YOU SEEM TO THRIVE ON COOKING, CLEANING AND DUSTING AND IM ALL TUCKERED OUT BY CLOSING TIME. WHAT'S THE ANSWER?. VITAMINS DARLING! I ALWAYS ( GET MY VITAMINS Vitamins for pep! PEP for vitamins!*
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  • 09
    Iver Johnson Papa says won't hurt us Revolvers are not toys: they shoot straight and kill. You may need Absolutely Safe one only once in your lifetime: buy now, so ACCIDENTAL you will have it at that DISCHARGE time. IMPOSSIBLE HAMMERLESS AUTOMATIC $6. Send for Our fire arms encyclopædia SAFETY $ IVER JOHNSON'S ARMS & CYCLE WORKS. FITCHBURG, MASS. U.S.A.
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  • 10
    WASH AWAY FATI R AND YEARS OF ACE With La-Mar Reducing Soap The new discovery. Results. quick and amazing-nothing internal to take. Reduce any part of body desired with- out affecting other parts. No dieting or exercising. Be as slim as you wish. Acts like magic in reducing double ankles, chin, abdomen, ungainly unbecoming wrists, arms and shoulders, large busts or any superfluous fat on body. Sold direct to you by mail, post paid, on money-back guar- antee. Price 2/- a cake, or three cakes for
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  • 11
    Diet dodge: Enjoy an ice cream cone shortly before lunch. Sugar can be the willpower you need to undereat. When you're hungry, it usually means your energy's down. By eating something with sugar in it, you can get your energy up fast. In fact, sugar is the fastest energy food around. And when your energy's up, there's a good chance you'll have the willpower to undereat at mealtime. How's that for a sweet idea? Sugar...only 18 calories per teaspoon, and it's all energy. Sugar Information General
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  • 12
    www.StrangeCosmos.com ALUMINUM SOFTOP WTOP Schliff Old hard way New Schlitz way Some day all beer cans will open this easy! Now only Schlitz brings you-coast to coast-the world's easiest opening beer can! The new aluminum Softop can! real gusto-real easy! The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous
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  • 13
    R6 Give her July for Christmas. © Deluxe Sunlamp Give her a G-E "TANITY CASE" Everything for a tan but th Buy up summer and give it all to her in a G-E Sunlamp. Even better than the real thing every day is Sun-day! The G-E "Tanity Case" holds everything for a tan whenever ever) she wants it... a G-E Sunlamp, holder, eye shields. Even sun cream. All she ha open up the "Tanity Case" and let the merry, merry sunshine out. Enough for hun hundreds of sun-sational sessions. There's no time like snow t
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  • 14
    86-90-100 Proof Bottled in Bond Distilled and Bottled by Barton Distilling Company Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky Kentucky Gentleman is the world's smoothest, lightest bourbon. But don't take our word for it. With bourbon this excellent, one jigger is worth a thousand words. And Kentucky Gentleman speaks for itself. €10 perb Quality KENTUCKY GENTLEMAN KENTUCKY GENTLEMAN MILJEDARCILED BY BARTON DISTILLING COMPANY BARDSTOWN KENTUCKY Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whishery OU the Convincer pe friend
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  • 15
    KNOW WHY ONE OF OUR BETTER IDEAS IS A SHIFT THAT'S BOTH AUTOMATIC AND MANUAL? SELECT SHIFT: Automatic for her. Manual for him: for control on hills, curves; in snow, mud; while passing. Comes on the column or floor. On all our automatics. nem luhest Our wives have minds of their own, too. Ford ...has a better idea MUSTANG FALCON TORINO FAIRLANE FORD THUNDERBIRD MERCURY COUGAR MONTEGO MERCURY LINCOLN CONT
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  • 16
    How do you keep a beautiful blonde true? This man knows: "Clairol Shampoo has been keeping my customers' hair color true for years," says world-famous hairdresser Gene Shacove. "I always recommend it for at-home shampooing, and I insist on it in my salon. To wash hair clean without fading hair color, there's nothing like Clairol Shampoo." So when at home, do as the hairdressers do. Keep your color true with Clairol Shampoo. Blue for blonde shades. Green for brown, black and red shades. Liquid in
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  • 17
    Send for your super new Daisy B-B gun catalog. Write Daisy, Box 220, Dept. NCG. Rogers, Arkansas 72756. Only 25c Contact your local Jaycees about Daisy's Shooting Education Program. "I know why Ken likes to shoot Daisy B-B guns with me. He's a better shot than I am! And I like shooting with him simply because it gives us an opportunity to spend some time together. Sometimes we set up targets down in the basement. Or else we'll get out in the backyard by ourselves plinking away, and talking. I've
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  • 18
    PERFECT WOMEN are not flat-chested and thin-limbed. Nature intended every woman to be decently develop- ed, with a full, rounded bosom & sufficient flesh to hide her skeleton. DON'T STAY THIN! Dr. Falliere's 66 99 FLESH FOOD" will increase your weight by as much as five pounds a week, and will add inches to your measurements.... It is a scientific bust developer, a medicated tissue food, harmless and efficacious. Send 2d. stamp for Free Trial Sample and Free Descriptive Book. Falliere 'Flesh-Foo
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  • 19
    CURVES OF YOUTH will be yours if you will "Pull the Cords" Gives the Flesh the Resiliency and Freshness of Youth PROF. MACK'S Prevents Double Chins Effaces Double Chins Chin Reducer and Beautifier Reduces Enlarged Glands The only mechanism producing a concentrated, continuous massage of the chin and neck, dispelling flabhiness of the neck and throat, restoring a rounded contour to thin, scrawny necks and faces, bringing a natural, healthy color to the cheeks, effacing lines and wrinkles. Price o
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  • 20
    NOW SHE CAN COOK BREAKFAST AGAIN WHEN YOU PRESCRIBE NEW MORNIDINE A new drug with specific effectiveness in nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, Mornidine elimi- nates the ordeal of morning sickness. With its selective action on the vomiting cen- ter, or the medullary chemoreceptor "trigger zone," Mornidine possesses the advantages of the phenothiazine drugs without unwanted tranquilizing activity. Doses of 5 to 10 mg., repeated at intervals of (BRAND OF PIPAMAZINE) TM six to eight hours, provide e
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  • 21
    THE GREAT YAQUIS A Guaranteed CURE FOR RHEUMATISM WHETHER ACUTE, CHRONIC, SCIATIC, NEURALGIO OR INFLAMMATORY 50c a Bottle. PREPARED FROM PURE RATTLESNAKE OIL. avie THE ONLY COMPANY IN THE UNITED STATES THAT MAKES THE GENUINE ARTICLE. 50c a Bottle. SNAKE-OIL LINIMENT BORELIEVES INSTANTANEOUSLY AND CURES HEADACHE, NEURALGIA. TOOTHACHE, EARACHE, BACKACHE, SWELLINGS, SPRAINS, SORE CHEST, SWELLING of the THROAT, CONTRACTED CORDS and MUSCLES, STIFF JOINTS, WRENCHES, DISLOCATIONS, CUTS and BRUISES. It
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  • 22
    TW TWENTY YEARS' SUCCESS.-The only really certain means of growing a beard hitherto dis- covered is the use of Professor Modevi's BEARD GENERATOR Before use. Success guaranteed after four to six weeks' 180, even by young men not above seventeen Years of age. Perfectly harmless for the skin. A б9. bottle, or double- sized 88. bottle, sent lirectly on receipt of P.O.O. or stamps for .he amount. Only to be had genuine of GIOVANNI BORGHI, Manufacturer of Eau-de After use. Cologne and Perfumery, Colo
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  • 23
    Dr.Batty's Unive For Your Health ASTHMA CIGARETTES SINCE 1002 For the temporary relief of paroxysms of asthma EFFECTIVLY TREATS: ASTHMA, HAY FEVER, FOUL BREATH ALL DISEASES OF THE THROAT, HEAD COLDS, CANKER SOURS BRONCHIAL IRRITATIONS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 6.
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  • 24
    For a better start in life start COLA earlier! - Promotes Active Lifestyle! Boosts Personality! How soon is too soon? Not soon enough. Laboratory tests over the last few years have proven that babies who start drinking soda during that -Gives body essential carly formative period have a much higher chance of gaining sugars! acceptance and "fitting in" during those awkward pre-teen and teen years. So, do yourself a favor. Do your child a favor. Start them on a strict regimen of sodas and other su
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  • 25
    FACE THE FACTS! When tempted to over-indulge "Reach for a Lucky instead" LUCKY STRIKE OASTED CIGARETTES even in smoking. Avoid that future fal figa "Reach for tetky d Lucky Strike, the finest Cigarette you ever smoked, made of the finest tobacco-The Cream of the Crop-"IT'S TOASTED." Lucky Strike has an extra, secret heat- ing process. Everyone knows that heat puri- fies and so 20,679 physicians say that Luckies are less irritating to your throat. "It's toasted" Your Throat Protection-against irr
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  • 26
    IF MEN "HATE THE SIGHT OF YOU READ THIS- LET'S BEAT IT HERE COMES 2 THAT SKINNY DAME MEN HATE THE SIGHT OF ME, I'M SO SKINNY. I'M GOING TO TRY IRONIZED YEAST GAINS 1 YOU'RE GORGEOUS SINCE YOU'VE GAINED WEIGHT! A FEW WEEKS LATER 3 THOUSANDS OF SKINNY GIRLS GAIN 10 TO 20 LBS.-QUICK!
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