Du Pont cellophane, 1950s
image via v.valenti
Collectors Weekly recently ran an article called What Were We Thinking? The Top 10 Most Dangerous Ads which featured some very bad-for-your-health vintage advertisements. For example, there’s a 1950s Du Pont magazine ad that shows a stork carrying a baby in a clear cellophane bag with the copy, “The best things in life come in Cellophane”. In another, from a 1923 Dutch Boy brochure, children are encouraged to play with Dutch Boy Paints’ ‘Lead Family’, an anthropomorphic cast of toxic characters. There’s more of these ads at Collectors Weekly, including a sad gem from 1947 that claims that DDT is good for a wide variety of things. Oh, the good ol’ days.
The Dutch Boy’s Lead Party, 1923
DDT ad by Killing Salt Chemicals, 1947
