The Consumerist has a wonderful article “Top 10 Ironic Ads from History“. These are old advertisements that innocently promoted something that eventually went horribly wrong:
- A Union Carbide ad about how “Science helps build a new India” — before one of their plants killed 25 thousand people there.
- An ad for asbestos “When life depends on it, you use asbestos”.
- An ad that inadvertently tells the truth: “This child’s life may depend on the safety of Distaval”. Distaval is a trade name for thalidomide, a drug that was responsible for tens of thousands of serious birth defects.
- An ad for Heroin — Bayer once owned the trademark on the name heroin!
- A public service ad filmed by James Dean to encourage safe driving, which was never used after Dean was killed in his speeding sports car.
- And of course the ad proclaiming that “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”
I purposely didn’t include images of the ads, so you would have to go read the original.
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I use these ads when I teach the history of public health. I have two favorites. One that shows the happy and fit family running on the beach with the caption: “They are happy because they eat lard!” (which is very likely true) The other is an ad to eat however much you want and stay thin by using “sanitized tapeworms.”
@ Starluna. Sanitized tapeworms!
Thanks, I think I’m going to have nightmares…
*shudders*
These ads. They look so innocent. Of course anyone reading it before the disaster would consider it innocent. But now that you know what really happened and then you see these ads. Sends a shiver down my spine. Because there are still lots of chemical companies displaying such ads.
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