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| Miss Clairol, 1961 |
Only her hairdresser knows for sure...
When junior came "popping in" to ask, who's older, mommy: you or daddy, you can just imagine how mommy wanted to pop him in his big nose.
In their before footage, the women in these ads always looked harsh and strained. But after one treatment with Miss Clairol, their hair styles and make-up magically changed...along with their hair colors.
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time 1:03 size 2.42 mb aired 1961
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| Raquel Welch for Clairol, 1973 |
Do you sometimes play hard to get?...
When the 1970s decade came around, out went America's obsession with everything blonde and tanned.
The stunning and brainy beauty queen, Welch, got her national break as a billboard girl on the blockbuster TV show, The Hollywood Palace.
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time 0:31 size 1.24 mb aired 1973
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| Listerine Tooth Paste, 1953 |
Listerine's special ingredient, Listerfoam!
Wow, a special secret ingredient known as Listerfoam. We're guessing it was a frothy mixture of toothpaste and spit.
Notice the honest depiction of messy toothpaste around the kids' lips, unlike nearly all later toothpaste ads which never hinted at messiness.
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time 0:44 size 1.7 mb aired 1953
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| Stridex, 1965 |
Melinda, is your face really clean now?
Filthy-faced Melinda gets tutored by Shindig's Jimmy O'Neill on how to get her face deeply clean.
There was an endless string of teenage girls lining up to show Jimmy and America the grotesque sludge deposits on their faces.
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time 1:03 size 2.4 mb aired 1965
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| Aim Toothpaste with Meg Ryan, 1981 |
It's Aim MINT...
Horrible quality video, but you can't mistake the face and voice of America's 1980s sweetheart, just before her career rocketed.
The way she pronounced Aim MINT is so like her sassy character in the future film, When Harry Met Sally.
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time 0:32 size 1.25 mb aired 1981
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| Bobbi Roller Perm, 1963 |
...roller-roller-roller-roller-roller perm...
The picture on the left was begging for future ridicule, back in 1963. We're oh-so happy to oblige, more than four decades later.
For awhile, Bobbi enjoyed success with this ad and jingle. We're not sure when the brand was discontined (by Gillette, we believe).
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time 1:04 size 2.46 mb aired 1963
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| Yardley Slicker Dollys, 196? |
Mix them, match them, wear them alone...
When you think groovy '60s ads, think Yardley.
The psychedelic era in America was everything Austin Powers said it was: everything trendy was British, fashion was clownish, and sexuality was flaunted.
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time 0:32 size 1.26 mb aired 196?
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| Luster-Creme (Shirley Jones), 1961 |
In Hollywood, we think there's no shampoo like Luster-Creme.
Fresh off the set of the Music Man, here is a rare ad featuring a young Shirley Jones.
Lustre-Creme came in a rather huge tub, had the texture of a silky pink paste, and smelled great. It appears that The Vermont Country Store has recreated the original formula and offers it for sale online.
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time 0:31 size 1.38 mb aired 1961
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| Dorothy Gray Cream (radiation), 195? |
This same kind of dirt was made just radioactive enough...
In the tradition of the 1950s duck-and-cover strategy to survive a catastrophic nuclear blast, we present...a cold cream test using real radioactive dirt.
WHAT?
Yes, the beautiful model pictured here had her face smeared with radioactive dirt to prove the cleansing ability of a cold cream. We're assuming that neither the corporate sponsor nor the government helped the clueless model with her cancer treatments years later, when her cheeks rotted away.
A visitor to the site (thanks, Mike) tells us that this ad originally aired in 1955, on The Sunday Lucy Show.
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time 1:30 size 3.5 mb aired 195?
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| Sea & Ski, 1966 |
It's gonna tan you like nothing can tan you come rain or come shine...
In the mid to late 1960s, these tanning commercials blanketed the airwaves, especially in summer.
Sea & Ski jumped on the "instant" tan bandwagon, and suddenly orange people were everywhere.
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time 1:00 size 2.68 mb aired 1966
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