#TBT: A 1960s Beauty Ad Encouraged Weight Gain
Tablets for weight gain. (Photo: Courtesy of Julian Douglas)
Recently, we wrote about the history of dieting, but did you know that women were pressured to put on weight in the not-so-far-away past? Senior editor Joanna Douglas’ brother found this advertisement for “Health Aids Tablets” in a Marvel Comics Silver Surfer comic book from 1969. “Improve your figure and looks by adding a few pounds and inches in the right places,” the copy reads. “Don’t be skinny because of bad eating habits. Gain as much weight as you like.” For $2.98 (about $20 today), you could get 100 tablets which are supposedly packed with “pounds gaining calories, Vitamins, Iron, Minerals, and other nourishing ingredients.”
These days, we don’t have Health Aids Tablets, but we still have butt- and bust-enhancing accouterments and even exercise classes designed to boost certain areas of the body. Beauty standards may change throughout the decades, but the pressure on women’s bodies to look a certain way has unfortunately remained the same.
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