We had a friend's 55th birthday today with a live band at an RSL club. The invitation was very 70s in style and the dress code was 'Status Quo, Rolling Stones, rock 'n roll' - something like that. I started getting dressed and was wearing mostly black and feeling rather comfortable for a wintry Sunday afternoon.
No, I chided myself, lift. You can do better than that MWW - it's Rob's birthday! So I dug deeper and went all out:
Curled, teased, flicked and lacquered hair - Charlie's Angels' style
More silver jewelry than I knew I owned
Enormously ridiculous white sunglasses from the dress ups
Snake skin platform ankle boots (that I had to dig out of the 'donations' bag - but having had an outing, I think I might pop them back in the dress up box after all)
I even bothered to change my handbag to the silver tote
So, feeling now that a suitable effort had been put in, we headed off. And arrived to find that no-one, and I mean, NO-ONE else had bothered with that dress up bit. There was the odd half-hearted black leather jacket but that was about it. Not even the birthday boy or his wife were in costume. Mother Of A Man Child, I will get you back!!!
Geoff bought Palmolive Gold soap at the supermarket. (He should not be allowed to enter supermarkets unsupervised. I think he really believes Wagon Wheels are in one of the major food groups required for essential daily nutrition.) And it sparked my memory for some highly questionable advertising in the 1970s. If you're old enough do you remember the soap's jingle with people sniffing arm pits?
Don't wait to be told, you need Palmolive Gold!
Promoted to imply it had some kind of BO mitigating properties, in an era where nylon and polyester were fabric du jour, I don't think an overly perfumed soap was really going to cut it. Unless you were showing half hourly. Even a cloud of the now familiar Lynx would be hard pressed to mask that special odour. Perhaps anti-perspirant may have been a better idea.
And then that got me thinking about Scorched Peanut bar, the hard bar. I had a look on YouTube and I found it!!! I remember this when I was a kid. We thought it was hilarious. (Actually, I still do...)
And what about Give you man's meat a treat, spread the Leggo's!
I didn't locate that gem, but I did find this from the Gruen Transfer website. Apparently there was an ad for Leggos pasta sauces back in the 70s, where the wife is in the kitchen and she says: "When your man's come home from a rough day at work, open up your 'Leggos' and give his meat a treat!" It was only shown a few times before the ad was pulled. Is this an urban myth, or can you show it on the next show? :D
It wasn't an urban myth. I saw it with my own eyes. Seriously, the 1970s was not a time renowned for its political correctness.
And finally Salvital. I can't locate that one either, but don't worry, I've wasted some precious memory on that jingle too: Little housewife, has such a hard life, Worn out before her man gets hooooo-o-ome So they gave her, a glass of Salvital, Now he's afraid to come home alone (as wife grabs husband by the tie and drags him into the house to presumably have her way with him.)
I've worked in big advertising agencies for 25 years until Mandy and I started our own business nearly a year ago. The late 80s when I started were a far cry from the far more austere 90s and rapidly changing dynamics of the new millenium. But I really think the 70s was a whole different paradigm (see, proof that I work in advertising, I use ridiculous words like 'paradigm'). Funny in retrospect yes, but I'm sure the women of the era working at those agencies didn't find it nearly so fun.
And by the way, Palmolive Gold still smells dreadful.
Do you remember these ads? Any other pearls I've missed?
