I love vin­tage ads. They cer­tainly didn’t beat around the bush back then. They told you, in very frank and ex­plicit terms, why you needed to buy this prod­uct — you were too fat, you were too ugly, you were sin­gle!

In these times of sub­lim­i­nal mes­sag­ing, where the misog­yny be­hind an ad is hid­den in sub­text and “art”, it’s kind of re­fresh­ing to look at ad­ver­tis­ing from yes­ter­year. At least they told you what was wrong with you - to your face.

So when some­one asks me, “Why are you sin­gle?”, I can choose from many pos­si­ble rea­sons, thanks to vin­tage advertising.

I smell.

I’m con­sti­pated.

I’m clever.

I sweat.

I’m a slut.