50 Vintage Women’s Ads That Prove Society Used To Play By Very Different Rules

Jason Sargent Saturday, January 17, 2026

- - 50 Vintage Women’s Ads That Prove Society Used To Play By Very Different Rules

Oleksandra KyryliukJanuary 16, 2026 at 6:02 PM

To look at how society has changed over time, we don’t just have to rely on history books. Sometimes, the proof is sitting right under our noses.

To spot it, you could rummage through a drawer and find an old iPod. Or take a trip to your grandma’s house, open her closet, and see what her generation used to wear. Or you can look at something people used to see every single day: the ads of the past.

And when it comes to vintage ads aimed at women, they’re especially telling. On top of selling products, they also reveal the values of the time, along with the labels that were placed on women. The design might be gorgeous, but the messaging doesn’t always age well. Check them out below.

#1 Dodge Challenger R/T Ad (1970)

#2 Chic Jeans Ad (1983)

Advertisements exist to sell us products. That simple truth has remained constant for over a century, even as the methods and messages have transformed beyond recognition. What has changed dramatically is our understanding of who gets targeted and how those targets are portrayed.

#3 Frederick’s Of Hollywood Stocking Stuffers Ad (1960s)

#4 Royal Crown Cola Ad (1961)

Women were recognized as a distinct consumer market long before modern advertising emerged. By the late 1800s, department stores and the culture around shopping already spoke directly to women and treated them as key customers.

What evolved over the decades wasn’t the recognition that women bought things, but rather the increasingly sophisticated psychological tactics used to influence those purchases.

#5 Datacomp Ad

#6 Amc Pacer Ad From France

#7 Keyko Margarine Ad - 1955

Soap companies became masters of speaking to housewives through guilt and aspiration. A 1930s Lysol campaign actually marketed the disinfectant as a feminine hygiene product, with ads suggesting that women who failed to use it risked losing their husbands.

The copy was clinical and authoritative, borrowing medical language to create anxiety where none existed before. The campaigns sold entire value systems about what made a woman worthy alongside the cleaning products themselves.

#8 1939 Wrigley's Doublemint Twins Ad

#9 Listerine Ad (1916)

#10 Alfred Angelo Wedding Dress Ad (1970)

Kitchen appliances became central to advertising in the postwar boom. Refrigerators and washing machines appeared in ads as solutions to domestic drudgery, promising to transform the daily grind of housework.

A smiling woman in heels and pearls would pose next to her new vacuum cleaner, dressed as if ready for an evening out. The ads suggested that modern technology would make housework so effortless that women could look immaculate while doing it.

These machines were sold as labor-saving devices, yet the women in the ads always seemed to be performing for an invisible audience.

#11 General Tire Ad - 1943

#12 Ben Barrack (1959)

#13 1945 Ad From Heinz Baby Foods

Listerine turned ordinary bad breath into a social disaster during the 1920s with their halitosis campaign. The ads featured stories about women like Edna, who remained a bridesmaid but never a bride because of her bad breath.

The campaign worked by suggesting that friends would never tell you about the problem, leaving you to face rejection without knowing why. Within seven years, revenues jumped from $115,000 to over $8 million as the company convinced people they had a medical problem that needed fixing.

#14 Another From Mg