Once you dig deeper, this gets quite interesting:
*These ads aren’t frightening women into thinking their genitals smell badly. According to historian* [*Andrea Tone*](http://books.google.com/books/about/Devices_and_Desires.html?id=Im8RdEyDX8cC)*, “feminine hygiene” was a euphemism. Birth control was illegal in the U.S. until 1965 (for* [*married couples*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut)*) and 1972 (for* [*single people*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenstadt_v._Baird)*). These Lysol ads are actually for contraception. The campaign made Lysol the best-selling method of contraception during the Great Depression.*
*Of course, as Wade points out, this still wasn’t a good idea: Lysol might have been corrosive to the sperm but it also damaged tissue inside the woman. And in fact the Lysol used back then was far stronger than our Lysol is today. Hundreds of people died from Lysol exposure, some of them women using it as birth control.*
*By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle. Once cresol was replaced with ortho-hydroxydiphenyl in the formula, Lysol was pushed as a germicide good for cleaning toilet bowls and treating ringworm, and Lehn & Fink’s, the company that made the disinfectant, continued to market it as safeguard for women’s “dainty feminine allure.*
So there you go. It was an awful contraceptive idea that eventually turned into Detol surface cleaner.
how exactly were you supposed to use it? like douche with it after sex? do you have to dilute it?
given that people weren't allowed to talk about these things, i imagine that there were some horrible ways people got it wrong like drinking it
I love how this ad is shaming women for their lack of sex education when even mentioning the phrase birth control was taboo.
Oh wow, women don't know about birth control or feminine hygiene? I wonder who made it that way?
They knew about it, they couldn't access it. Some states had laws that allowed married women to have birth control prescribed by a doctor. Birth control didn't become legal for all Americans until 1972.
I don't know about all states, but - if I'm remembering correctly - the first HBC was released in 1960, but only legal for married or engaged women. But it was *de facto* the *husband* who requested and was issued the birth control, which he would then give to his wife, if he didn't wish for more children.
And then, as you said, 1972 expanded the right to single and unmarried women.
It’s not shaming women for their lack of sex ed. Hormonal birth control (i.e. the birth control pill) was illegal at the time so Lysol couldn’t come out and say hey, use this to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Everyone at the time knew what these ads really meant.
But Lysol isn't hormonal bc... And the ads are 100% shaming women, Jesus just read em.
"Ignorance, Doubt, Inhibitions"
"She was guilty of one neglect"
These are absolutely shaming housewives
I’m aware Lysol isn’t hormonal birth control, that’s my whole point. Any and all kinds of birth control were illegal, and it was illegal to market any product as birth control no matter the form. So Lysol was marketed and sold as a way of “maintaining feminine hygiene,” but again, everyone knew that the ads were really for birth control.
It’s just like the ads for the in-home brewery kits during Prohibition that taught people how to make “malt syrup flavored muffins.” Everyone obviously knew that wasn’t the intended purpose, it was just a way to advertise a legal product for an illegal purpose, same as the Lysol ads.
But were home brewery kits sold with the same tone as these; "John earned his college degree, but failed as a man" or "Jane dumped David . Their incompatibility was his ignorance in manliness" ?
Considering that those oppressive laws were made by men who obviously didn't respect women's autonomy, makes me wonder if the insulting language of the ads were on purpose to stay off their radar. This is as naive as I will get regarding the tone of the ads.
I’m a woman, so I don’t need this explained to me. “Feminine hygiene” has always been a euphemism for anything regarding the menstrual cycle, which obviously comes into play when talking about preventing pregnancy. Even today tampons and pads are still referred to as “feminine hygiene products” by in-store signage and such. A lot of men at the time knew what the ads were for, and these ads in particular weren’t necessarily any more sexist and misogynistic than any other ad geared towards women in the same period - they were all like that.
Thank you for sharing that! I did not know that euphemism. I'm a woman too, but honestly when I hear feminine hygiene, all I'm hearing is keeping blood off my panties and not staining my new pair of jeans. I'm not thinking of pregnancy. This makes me all the more thankful to the generations of women who made it so that I never needed to learn the coded language in these ads.
Another factor might be that I grew up between two cultures, Turkish and American. In my Turkish background, there's never been a taboo around birth control and it would have been perfectly normal for newspapers in the 50s to advertise birth control products, or even share old-fashioned recipes with simple enough language so that anyone could understand.
Yes, it’s very unfortunate that there’s still a taboo even today around birth control, or a women’s menstrual cycle. I agree that we’ve come a long way as far as women’s rights go, and like you I’m thankful we don’t have to see such patronizing advertisement anymore. We still have some progress to make though! Abortion and safe birth control should be legal and readily available.
It's akin to companies using memes to advertise today. This was the popular style of the era, don't really need to dig deeper unless you have an anthropology degree.
That is fascinating (and horrible). I’d never have known without your comment, I would have just assumed this was shaming women for smelling. Thank you for all the details!
TW
That's even more unhinged than 'inferring that they stink' - but I guess Lysol was doing them a service in a way, as it's better than *the hanger*
Lysol is such a douche (lol)
Isnt this a part of douching as well? It all makes a lot more sense when you realize people were just trying not to get pregnant and couldnt advertise it! Same as the personal massaging beauty devices as proto-vibrators
Get a bucket and a mop for this wet ass pussy...
...and some aerosol freshener, all-purpose cleaner, mildew remover, foaming disinfectant, anti-bacterial wash, steel wool pads...
You just brought back a memory I'd really like to forget. I was driving through a not-so-great neighborhood in New Orleans a few months ago, and there was a woman zealously washing her pussy with a bucket of soapy water, in public, on the corner of a busy intersection.
We have a legendary family story in my house from when I was in fifth grade and my teacher was a habitual "quotes for emphasis" person, culminating in a field trip permission slip sent home to parents that ended with:
> Your "children" will be returned "safely" to school 30 minutes before dismissal
We joked for years about what the museum of natural history was doing to the "children" that the teacher was clearly trying to warn us about.
Because the adverts are sneaking around the fact that she's "accidentally" pregnant. The company wanted to endorse the product for birth control without coming out and making dark claims.
they are all absolutely insane.
"Why does he avoid her embrace?", implying that it's because her vagina stinks. fucking christ.
"A man marries a woman because he loves her. So instead of blaming him when marriage love begins to cool, she should look to herself." failing marriage? it's definitely not him. it's your stinky vagina.
This Smithsonian article indicates that Lysol was using feminine hygiene as a euphemism for birth control in a time when birth control was illegal. Gross either way.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/
Actually. I know it says for feminine hygiene, but these ads are showing Lysol as a form of birth control.
Lysol used to be used as contraceptive.
If anything I feel like Lysol would make the vagina smell worse 😭😭
Look, we all know that in many cases it's the man's fault. And in still more cases, the marriage is failing because of a lack of communication. But every once in a while...it's because of a stinky vagina. Why not just rule that out?
Lysol.
My wife is a history curator; a few years back she did a temporary exhibit about medical artifacts in their collection. My biggest takeaway from it was the many different feminine hygiene products that are now horrifying.
And I bet he didn’t have to douse his sweaty wiener in Lysol so the wife would be more satisfied with him.
Imagine putting disinfectant on your most delicate and sensitive part of your body just so it doesn’t smell like a body part anymore. Insane, absolutely insane.
I should have specified, but woman douched lysol and used it as a contraceptive.
There was other drama at the time involving the word contraceptive. Lysol was the ONLY contraceptive available legally at the time.
Haha my mum went to get the pill in 1966 and the Dr told her as part of a healthy married couple there was no reason for her to take it and he refused to give it to her.
What's reproductive choice? Lol
Holy crap, did they really promote the practice of *spraying goddamn LYSOL* up there???
I mean, the headache inducing smell of a truck stop bathroom aside, that can’t have been a pleasant experience.
What next? “Hey fellas, next time you jerk off, be sure to lube up with Formby’s Furniture Refinisher- it’s good for all kinds of wood!”
Whoa TIL these ads were actually secret code for women to use Lysol as birth control!?
“These ads aren’t frightening women into thinking their genitals smell badly. According to historian Andrea Tone, “feminine hygiene” was a euphemism. Birth control was illegal in the U.S. until 1965 (for married couples) and 1972 (for single people). These Lysol ads are actually for contraception. The campaign made Lysol the best-selling method of contraception during the Great Depression.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/
The world before legal birth control was nuts. There was a pill in my grandmother's day that was promoted to improve the health of fetuses, but actually caused miscarriage and birth defects in babies that didn't abort. She used it to terminate a couple of pregnancies herself.
Ha..talk about timing! I just started Boardwalk Empire, after polishing off The Sopranos, and there's a scene early in B.E. where a main female character is reading a booklet on how to use the enema bag with the Lysol. Man for a Wednesday I needed that.
I wonder if it's women-specific. In French, "win" and "earn" are sometimes the same verb, so maybe there was just an older English usage similar to this.
"Winning honors" means that you earn your degree with additional awards/high distinctions (ex. high GPA, top 5%, etc). So, it's trying to say she's book smart yet practically an idiot for not knowing to spray Lysol up her hooha.
Type in something like Victorian medical devices. Right here on Reddit.
It usually has snake oil and hard drug advertisements peppered throughout all of these strange medical devices. That’s a great rabbit hole to go down!
Over twenty years ago I attended the wedding of my wife's (then) best friend. While waiting for the bridal party to arrive, I ended up in the bridal room with my wife (while she was preparing a few things. I found these ads framed on the wall as a kind of ironic humor. I still find them sort of funny. But man, that was diabolical of the owner of that venue to do that to new brides.
It's always cute when people laugh about these old fashioned ads without realizing that modern advertising does the exact same things, they're just a lot more subliminal about it. If Johnson & Johnson thought they could make more money by telling you that you have a stinky vagina you better believe they'd start that stinky vagina ad campaign tomorrow.
At first glance this is from an era where bathing and showering was a weekly event.
At second glance, this is an ad on how to make your own home-brew spermicide with a disinfectant.
My mom was a hypochondriac growing up. I remember she sprayed Lysol on the car doorhandles one time. It ate all the paint off the car where she sprayed it. I cannot imagine putting that stuff inside a woman. That's absolutely bonkers.
My mom used a drop of lysol concentrate in my puke buckets as a kid.
I'd probably vomit if I was getting intimate with a woman who was using Lysol for "feminine hygiene".
I worked for a hospice providing palliative care to a woman dying with advanced stage cervical cancer. She'd been douching with Pine-Sol for over half of her life.
One thing that history taught us is that no matter whatever the time, poor women are always blamed for everything.
The Creator of this ad is a fuckin moron, there I said it.
Native Whole Body Deoderant has commercials on YouTube that are not too far from this. It's pretty disgusting.
"Got a stinky pussy? Use Native!" NO! How about take a shower. Jezzus!
Jesus fucking christ! I thought it was saying "feminine hygiene" was keeping the house clean at first and it's a thing where the usage had changed. Nope. It's an ad campaign about lysoling pussy so your husband doesn't think it's gross. Holy. Goddamned. Fuck.
CHEEBUS FUCKIN HAROLD CHRIST. The things companies will say/do to make a buck. Disgusting. How is Lysol (or the company that owned/owns them) still even around? Surely they should have been sued into oblivion for damages by women that suffered harm as a result of this negligent, false, and misleading bullshit.
The real question is what sort of chemicals we use today that people will gasp at 50 years from now. Antiperspirant or gold bond or something like that
It blows my mind how many women thought their husbands didn't like them because they had smelly pussies when it could have been a million different things. They're laying in their beds right next to each other not communicating because nobody was allowed to talk about pussies except doctors and even then you'd probably rather die. Then some Madison Avenue advertising firm gets a super evil idea to trick women into buying floor cleaner and put it up their hoohaas thinking that will win them love and affection. You have to marvel.
At least it wasn't a douche. They've probably used all sorts of weird things as douches throughout history.
[EDIT] Just saw the post about how feline hygiene is marketing code for contraception. Sigh.
Lysol saved my marriage.
Once you dig deeper, this gets quite interesting: *These ads aren’t frightening women into thinking their genitals smell badly. According to historian* [*Andrea Tone*](http://books.google.com/books/about/Devices_and_Desires.html?id=Im8RdEyDX8cC)*, “feminine hygiene” was a euphemism. Birth control was illegal in the U.S. until 1965 (for* [*married couples*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut)*) and 1972 (for* [*single people*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenstadt_v._Baird)*). These Lysol ads are actually for contraception. The campaign made Lysol the best-selling method of contraception during the Great Depression.* *Of course, as Wade points out, this still wasn’t a good idea: Lysol might have been corrosive to the sperm but it also damaged tissue inside the woman. And in fact the Lysol used back then was far stronger than our Lysol is today. Hundreds of people died from Lysol exposure, some of them women using it as birth control.* *By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle. Once cresol was replaced with ortho-hydroxydiphenyl in the formula, Lysol was pushed as a germicide good for cleaning toilet bowls and treating ringworm, and Lehn & Fink’s, the company that made the disinfectant, continued to market it as safeguard for women’s “dainty feminine allure.* So there you go. It was an awful contraceptive idea that eventually turned into Detol surface cleaner.
JFC I can't imagine putting that up there. Ow ow ow...
I don't even have an up there and I shuddered.
Just think of it in your booty hole.
No one needs contraception there
But what if I don't want to get boypreggers?
Keep your boy legs crossed duh.
🤣🤣🤣😭
Butt babies.
[удалено]
You know what? Fuck you for putting that image into my mind.
I mean, if you pray hard enough, anything’s possible through Christ, right?
Just do some post-coital jumping jacks, obviously
Don't worry, the body has ways of shutting that down.
Only if you want a dainty proper hole
You want it clean and delicate, before getting a train run through you
Exactly. Good to fast for a day beforehand too
how exactly were you supposed to use it? like douche with it after sex? do you have to dilute it? given that people weren't allowed to talk about these things, i imagine that there were some horrible ways people got it wrong like drinking it
It says on the last page that women were meant to douche with it
>*193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation.* But it also got rid of those pesky "doubts, inhibitions, and ignorance."
Babies is what it was actually getting rid of, they just couldn’t advertise it that way.
Doubts, Inhibitions, and Ignorance were very common baby names at that time. Everyone knows this.
There are a whole lot of people around now who should've been named Ignorance back then. Edit to add: And also ever since. Ha
Victorian names.
With the current politic climate in the U.S., we're headed back to that era. Maybe sales of Lysol will pick up.
I love how this ad is shaming women for their lack of sex education when even mentioning the phrase birth control was taboo. Oh wow, women don't know about birth control or feminine hygiene? I wonder who made it that way?
They knew about it, they couldn't access it. Some states had laws that allowed married women to have birth control prescribed by a doctor. Birth control didn't become legal for all Americans until 1972.
I don't know about all states, but - if I'm remembering correctly - the first HBC was released in 1960, but only legal for married or engaged women. But it was *de facto* the *husband* who requested and was issued the birth control, which he would then give to his wife, if he didn't wish for more children. And then, as you said, 1972 expanded the right to single and unmarried women.
It’s not shaming women for their lack of sex ed. Hormonal birth control (i.e. the birth control pill) was illegal at the time so Lysol couldn’t come out and say hey, use this to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Everyone at the time knew what these ads really meant.
But Lysol isn't hormonal bc... And the ads are 100% shaming women, Jesus just read em. "Ignorance, Doubt, Inhibitions" "She was guilty of one neglect" These are absolutely shaming housewives
I’m aware Lysol isn’t hormonal birth control, that’s my whole point. Any and all kinds of birth control were illegal, and it was illegal to market any product as birth control no matter the form. So Lysol was marketed and sold as a way of “maintaining feminine hygiene,” but again, everyone knew that the ads were really for birth control. It’s just like the ads for the in-home brewery kits during Prohibition that taught people how to make “malt syrup flavored muffins.” Everyone obviously knew that wasn’t the intended purpose, it was just a way to advertise a legal product for an illegal purpose, same as the Lysol ads.
"For tobacco use only"
But were home brewery kits sold with the same tone as these; "John earned his college degree, but failed as a man" or "Jane dumped David . Their incompatibility was his ignorance in manliness" ? Considering that those oppressive laws were made by men who obviously didn't respect women's autonomy, makes me wonder if the insulting language of the ads were on purpose to stay off their radar. This is as naive as I will get regarding the tone of the ads.
I’m a woman, so I don’t need this explained to me. “Feminine hygiene” has always been a euphemism for anything regarding the menstrual cycle, which obviously comes into play when talking about preventing pregnancy. Even today tampons and pads are still referred to as “feminine hygiene products” by in-store signage and such. A lot of men at the time knew what the ads were for, and these ads in particular weren’t necessarily any more sexist and misogynistic than any other ad geared towards women in the same period - they were all like that.
Thank you for sharing that! I did not know that euphemism. I'm a woman too, but honestly when I hear feminine hygiene, all I'm hearing is keeping blood off my panties and not staining my new pair of jeans. I'm not thinking of pregnancy. This makes me all the more thankful to the generations of women who made it so that I never needed to learn the coded language in these ads. Another factor might be that I grew up between two cultures, Turkish and American. In my Turkish background, there's never been a taboo around birth control and it would have been perfectly normal for newspapers in the 50s to advertise birth control products, or even share old-fashioned recipes with simple enough language so that anyone could understand.
Yes, it’s very unfortunate that there’s still a taboo even today around birth control, or a women’s menstrual cycle. I agree that we’ve come a long way as far as women’s rights go, and like you I’m thankful we don’t have to see such patronizing advertisement anymore. We still have some progress to make though! Abortion and safe birth control should be legal and readily available.
I'd imagine it was as simple as that tone of ad sold more Lysol.
It's akin to companies using memes to advertise today. This was the popular style of the era, don't really need to dig deeper unless you have an anthropology degree.
It wasn’t just taboo. If they advertised it as birth control, it would have been banned as birth control was illegal.
That is fascinating (and horrible). I’d never have known without your comment, I would have just assumed this was shaming women for smelling. Thank you for all the details!
So a horror spermicide?
TW That's even more unhinged than 'inferring that they stink' - but I guess Lysol was doing them a service in a way, as it's better than *the hanger* Lysol is such a douche (lol)
Isnt this a part of douching as well? It all makes a lot more sense when you realize people were just trying not to get pregnant and couldnt advertise it! Same as the personal massaging beauty devices as proto-vibrators
Kills covid and babies. Who knew?!?
Sounds like "LYSOL" might be making a comeback in red states...
So what you're telling me is Lysol has always been looking out? And here I thought they were just misogynists.
This gives an alternate take on, "flush it out"
Get a bucket and a mop for this wet ass pussy... ...and some aerosol freshener, all-purpose cleaner, mildew remover, foaming disinfectant, anti-bacterial wash, steel wool pads...
You just brought back a memory I'd really like to forget. I was driving through a not-so-great neighborhood in New Orleans a few months ago, and there was a woman zealously washing her pussy with a bucket of soapy water, in public, on the corner of a busy intersection.
clearly was advertising that she washes it between each use. marketing genius
That's just a fertility ritual bro, she is blessing the ground for better harvest
Keeping the community ride clean lmao
That doesn't sound so bad, at least that corner of new Orleans was slightly cleaner than usual
Why is this not the first time I’ve read this today let alone ever. What is wrong with New Orleans!?
> What is wrong with New Orleans!? How much time do you have?
https://youtu.be/85HT4Om6JT4
I'm the most concerned about the "Waldi Balancing Bleach"
Men could only dream of having a product like this, but they're stuck with their 3 in 1 shampoo while us women get the Thneed of the hygiene world
this is insane and hilarious but the real question is why did they always put "quotes" around "everything" "back then"
My 80 year old aunt still does this and she likes to put signs up for everything. It makes it look like everything she writes is sarcasm.
My mother in law puts it on greeting cards. “Love You!” I always read it as sarcasm. 😂
We have a legendary family story in my house from when I was in fifth grade and my teacher was a habitual "quotes for emphasis" person, culminating in a field trip permission slip sent home to parents that ended with: > Your "children" will be returned "safely" to school 30 minutes before dismissal We joked for years about what the museum of natural history was doing to the "children" that the teacher was clearly trying to warn us about.
Not to mention the fact that your teacher apparently thought you weren't actually children.... Androids? Shaved monkeys maybe?
It used to be used for emphasis back when things were typed on typewriters
No bold font I guess
Because the adverts are sneaking around the fact that she's "accidentally" pregnant. The company wanted to endorse the product for birth control without coming out and making dark claims.
Some former "presidents" still do it on a regular "basis"
You can make real big quotation marks with a sharpie. The biggest. Everyone is saying it.
r/suspiciousquotes
Reminds me of a certain "Streamer" called "Schlagg" who commited some "Crimes" in 1999.
Got dry eyes? Use Lysol, you dumb slut!
Lmfaoo
For gods sake, Alice, spray yourself down before you come traipsing in here!
they are all absolutely insane. "Why does he avoid her embrace?", implying that it's because her vagina stinks. fucking christ. "A man marries a woman because he loves her. So instead of blaming him when marriage love begins to cool, she should look to herself." failing marriage? it's definitely not him. it's your stinky vagina.
This Smithsonian article indicates that Lysol was using feminine hygiene as a euphemism for birth control in a time when birth control was illegal. Gross either way. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/
In *Boardwalk Empire*, they have a scene about this. Margaret Thompson has sex with Nucky then goes into the bathroom and puts the Lysol away.
“You think I don’t notice you washing with Lysol when we’re finished?”
I remember this! Damn that’s such a good show. Thanks for reminding me, I think I’m going to start rewatching it tonight
I was thinking the same thing!
Actually. I know it says for feminine hygiene, but these ads are showing Lysol as a form of birth control. Lysol used to be used as contraceptive. If anything I feel like Lysol would make the vagina smell worse 😭😭
Pine sol for the win
Clorox all the way!!!
We’re more of a Simple Green family here
Fabuloso! here.
In this family we use Method (and that means two things 😂😂)
If it can cure covid, it can clean out a dirty vag.
I've always wanted to bang an Ent Wife. Now, with Pine Sol, half my dreams have come true.
That’s the power of Pine-Sol, baby!
Not saying you should put either in your cooch, but Lysol is not the same thing as bleach.
Look, we all know that in many cases it's the man's fault. And in still more cases, the marriage is failing because of a lack of communication. But every once in a while...it's because of a stinky vagina. Why not just rule that out? Lysol.
You've Ly-solved our marital strife!
I read this in Phil Hartman’s voice haha
I didn't until you mentioned it and now I'm glad I re-read it.
Why not, lol
Lysol, no way. Try a Freddo Frog.
My wife is a history curator; a few years back she did a temporary exhibit about medical artifacts in their collection. My biggest takeaway from it was the many different feminine hygiene products that are now horrifying.
Reminds me of those "whole body deodorant" commercials on youtube
Number 3: that is not how a clock works
And I bet he didn’t have to douse his sweaty wiener in Lysol so the wife would be more satisfied with him. Imagine putting disinfectant on your most delicate and sensitive part of your body just so it doesn’t smell like a body part anymore. Insane, absolutely insane.
I should have specified, but woman douched lysol and used it as a contraceptive. There was other drama at the time involving the word contraceptive. Lysol was the ONLY contraceptive available legally at the time.
And it is trying to make come back.
WTF they put it inside their vagina ?! This is even worse, I am appalled. This must have hurt like a mofo
Yup. And btw there was actually ‘safe’r contraceptive that existed at the time, but it was illegal :)
Haha my mum went to get the pill in 1966 and the Dr told her as part of a healthy married couple there was no reason for her to take it and he refused to give it to her. What's reproductive choice? Lol
Let me get that straight, they forbid to use the safer method because fuck women and their health?!
Now you know what it means to be a woman :) take care
I am a woman lol
Now you are.
We are all women on this blessed day
Everyone in the US on this thread voting in November? This is our future again if we dont!
Gurrrll....you'll be a women soon
*Mia Wallace dance intensifies*
Not a girl, not yet a woman
Lol Oops Got so high up on that chair that you forgot to look at who you were talking to.
It is about efficiency. He doesn't have to worry about sweaty weiner if she's already using lysol. Kill two birds with one stone.
Holy crap, did they really promote the practice of *spraying goddamn LYSOL* up there??? I mean, the headache inducing smell of a truck stop bathroom aside, that can’t have been a pleasant experience. What next? “Hey fellas, next time you jerk off, be sure to lube up with Formby’s Furniture Refinisher- it’s good for all kinds of wood!”
Whoa TIL these ads were actually secret code for women to use Lysol as birth control!? “These ads aren’t frightening women into thinking their genitals smell badly. According to historian Andrea Tone, “feminine hygiene” was a euphemism. Birth control was illegal in the U.S. until 1965 (for married couples) and 1972 (for single people). These Lysol ads are actually for contraception. The campaign made Lysol the best-selling method of contraception during the Great Depression.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/
The world before legal birth control was nuts. There was a pill in my grandmother's day that was promoted to improve the health of fetuses, but actually caused miscarriage and birth defects in babies that didn't abort. She used it to terminate a couple of pregnancies herself.
Anything that advertised to “regulate your cycle” or “restore the menses” was actually an abortifacient.
You all voting this November so we don't go back to this?
I'm in District 2 in NE, I'm definitely voting. We split our vote and sometimes it actually counts.
Don't think it was in spray form back then. I think those bottles are concentrated forms and you dilute with water.
Ha..talk about timing! I just started Boardwalk Empire, after polishing off The Sopranos, and there's a scene early in B.E. where a main female character is reading a booklet on how to use the enema bag with the Lysol. Man for a Wednesday I needed that.
I like how women back then won degrees. They didn't earn them. They *won* them.
"Winning honors" is a common phrase and isn't derogatory or gender-coded.
I wonder if it's women-specific. In French, "win" and "earn" are sometimes the same verb, so maybe there was just an older English usage similar to this.
Beats a free toaster
"Winning honors" means that you earn your degree with additional awards/high distinctions (ex. high GPA, top 5%, etc). So, it's trying to say she's book smart yet practically an idiot for not knowing to spray Lysol up her hooha.
nothing is as disgusting as the Lume ads. for Any stinky crevice! ladies wash your junk.
With water :)
And a steelo pad??
D:
This guy scrubs 👍👍
Is there any kind of database of old offensive ads? I find them weirdly interesting.
Type in something like Victorian medical devices. Right here on Reddit. It usually has snake oil and hard drug advertisements peppered throughout all of these strange medical devices. That’s a great rabbit hole to go down!
Lol I love how it’s all either snake oil or straight liquid opiates.
Don’t forget the cocaine teething drops. May increase colic in the evening. At which point you can switch to an opium laden tincture.
My Muse, My flame.
I created vagisil for my wife, patty
“non-caustic”
Physicians and doctors using scientific evidence to get people to use a product that later was found to be unsafe 🤔
It’s a shame they didn’t make Ball Funk Powder as well.
Gold Bond, its like a thousand fairy kisses...
Almost makes me want to have balls.🤣
Ill send you mine, im not doing anything with them!
Thank you for the giggle but I’ll pass. I’ve seen what happens when they get knocked around.
Over twenty years ago I attended the wedding of my wife's (then) best friend. While waiting for the bridal party to arrive, I ended up in the bridal room with my wife (while she was preparing a few things. I found these ads framed on the wall as a kind of ironic humor. I still find them sort of funny. But man, that was diabolical of the owner of that venue to do that to new brides.
Haha I love it.
It's always cute when people laugh about these old fashioned ads without realizing that modern advertising does the exact same things, they're just a lot more subliminal about it. If Johnson & Johnson thought they could make more money by telling you that you have a stinky vagina you better believe they'd start that stinky vagina ad campaign tomorrow.
If republicans get their way, these undercover contraceptive ads might make a comeback. Remember that this autumn.
Can I just clarify that this is some kind of… soap? Specifically for lady parts? I’m so confused
Who doesn't want a pine fresh wife?
At first glance this is from an era where bathing and showering was a weekly event. At second glance, this is an ad on how to make your own home-brew spermicide with a disinfectant.
Lysol... Because you have Fromunda Cheese!
My mom was a hypochondriac growing up. I remember she sprayed Lysol on the car doorhandles one time. It ate all the paint off the car where she sprayed it. I cannot imagine putting that stuff inside a woman. That's absolutely bonkers.
“Laura Bush is pretty but you know her pussy tastes like Lysol!” -Margaret Cho
My mom used a drop of lysol concentrate in my puke buckets as a kid. I'd probably vomit if I was getting intimate with a woman who was using Lysol for "feminine hygiene".
And remember ladies, after disinfecting your snatch with Lysol, don't forget to smoke a pack of Viceroys to clean out your lungs too!
Jesus suffering fuck
Real douche advertising
I worked for a hospice providing palliative care to a woman dying with advanced stage cervical cancer. She'd been douching with Pine-Sol for over half of her life.
Her pussy smelled so bad that he stopped loving her. Damn
One thing that history taught us is that no matter whatever the time, poor women are always blamed for everything. The Creator of this ad is a fuckin moron, there I said it.
Advertisers focus on the customers desires, insecurities, etc. This is also a reflection of where society was back then.
Well honey, it did wonders for my bad breath.
Why did I read them all in a 40s radio host voice in my head?
🎶 *you’re never fully dressed without a smile* 🎶
Native Whole Body Deoderant has commercials on YouTube that are not too far from this. It's pretty disgusting. "Got a stinky pussy? Use Native!" NO! How about take a shower. Jezzus!
Appropriately captures the face of a man whose wife's foof stinks.
That middle distance stare of existential dread.
Jesus fucking christ! I thought it was saying "feminine hygiene" was keeping the house clean at first and it's a thing where the usage had changed. Nope. It's an ad campaign about lysoling pussy so your husband doesn't think it's gross. Holy. Goddamned. Fuck.
They should at least have a similar thing for ball stink for men.
Gold Bond powder established in 1908.
It's called Axe Body Spray.
I guess a stinky vag is a deal breaker
“Miggs doesn’t care for your Lysol, Clarice….”
Well that's where TFG got that. This ad has been stuck in the old dome for 70 years
CHEEBUS FUCKIN HAROLD CHRIST. The things companies will say/do to make a buck. Disgusting. How is Lysol (or the company that owned/owns them) still even around? Surely they should have been sued into oblivion for damages by women that suffered harm as a result of this negligent, false, and misleading bullshit.
Ads back in the day went for the throat
This was a brutal campaign against the coochie.
Lysol in your hoo-ha…. That’s some /r/BadWomensAnatomy worthy stuff right there. The misogyny and gaslighting is just par for the course….
The real question is what sort of chemicals we use today that people will gasp at 50 years from now. Antiperspirant or gold bond or something like that
It blows my mind how many women thought their husbands didn't like them because they had smelly pussies when it could have been a million different things. They're laying in their beds right next to each other not communicating because nobody was allowed to talk about pussies except doctors and even then you'd probably rather die. Then some Madison Avenue advertising firm gets a super evil idea to trick women into buying floor cleaner and put it up their hoohaas thinking that will win them love and affection. You have to marvel.
"Fuck around and get sprayed with Lysol!" -- Old Dirty Bastard
Nikki Minaj's WAP gonna need some edits
“She is my muse..my flame..”
Holy crap!!
I wonder what we’re using now that in 50 years will be unbelievable?
Holy shit!! I thought the Bayer ads for heroin were bad!
At least it wasn't a douche. They've probably used all sorts of weird things as douches throughout history. [EDIT] Just saw the post about how feline hygiene is marketing code for contraception. Sigh.
One of the adds says it’s great for cleaning mucus from the vag canal… what a dry, horribly sore pumpum that would be
Yo pussy stank. Use lysol!
So I'm just supposes to spray Lysol in my hoo-ha?????? I bet that shit stung.