Father’s Day advertisements are a peek into what we think dads are all about. As cultures change, advertising shifts too, giving us a peek into the social construction of fatherhood.
Karl Bakeman pointed us to a series of vintage Father’s Day ads at Retronaut. They label them with the range from 1943 to 1981. Perhaps we can have fun guessing which was when. According to these ads, great gifts for dads include recliners, whiskey, cologne, and a pack of smokes. Today the perfect Dad’s Day gift appears to be meat and meat.
Ties were timeless, until 1981:
Comments 6
Xiao Mao — June 17, 2012
HAI KARATE!
Ah, so vintage racist but still kinda awesome... I have a bottle of that somewhere- it was gifted to me by an older friend. In the ad for it, why does it seem like "mother" was a substitute for "wife"? Ugh.
Like the recliner chair idea, everyone should have one. Now that I think of it, my dad had one and my mom didn't. That always kind of bothered me, since she did so much hard work to take care of us. :/
For racism against Chinese, Korean, Japanese, all Asian people, I like Angry Asian Man.
Yrro Simyarin — June 18, 2012
The tie one is classic. Hurrah for children growing up.
Monday Roundup — The Good Men Project — June 18, 2012
[...] tells us about vintage Father’s Day ads. Noah says I should link to this post about That’s My Boy and rape culture and things because [...]