Funny vintage Australian newspaper ads that wouldn’t stand a chance today

FROM cigarettes designed “for your throat’s sake” and a jar of moustache grower these Australian vintage ads make astoundingly funny claims.

Ad for Dr Walter's reducing garments including a chin reducer and wrinkle eradicator

FROM “moustache trainers” and “chin reducers” to cigarettes “for your throat’s sake”, these vintage Australian ads from early last century are as disturbing as they are hilarious.

Spurious claims and medical quackery were the norm as advertisers appealed to women’s desire to feel attractive and men’s craving for business and social success.

AD CAMPAIGNS WE REMEMBER FOR WRONG REASONS

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Ads in national magazine The Bulletin in the 1930s urged smokers to choose Craven “A” cigarettes — “made specially to prevent sore throats”.

A 1930s ad for Craven “A” cigarettes.

A cheeky ad in The Argus newspaper in Melbourne in the 1920s, headlined “Just What ‘The Doctor’ Ordered”, urged drinkers to choose a brand of Scotch whisky enticingly named “Doctor’s Special”.

Doctor's Special Whisky was promoted as “Just What ‘The Doctor' Ordered”.

Dr Jeanne Walter's “famous reducing garments” included chin reducers and wrinkle eradicators.

Devices called “chin reducers” and “wrinkle eradicators” to strap to the face overnight were advertised in local papers including the Prahran Chronicle and Malvern Standard in the years up to 1919.

They were part of Dr Jeanne Walter‘s range of “famous reducing garments” that were “endorsed by leading physicians” and included full body suits and face masks. Chin straps could reduce double chins, the ads promised, with “results guaranteed”.

Advertisement for “Dr Walter's famous medicated reducing rubber garments”.

One regular ad for Dr Walter’s products in the Brisbane Courier in 1920 promised customers could “reduce your flesh exactly where desired by wearing Dr Walter’s famous medicated reducing rubber garments”.

Ads in the The Australasian newspaper before World War I under the label “medical” promoted a jar of a mysterious “moustache grower” called Capillarine that, when rubbed on the upper lip, would help any man, however slight his hair, grow a handsome moustache.

It had “never failed” to work in 30 years, and chaps could “look older”, “do better in business and socially” and even protect their health with a strong moustache.

Pre-WWI advertisement for Capillarine moustache grower

But clearly not just any old mo would suffice: the same ads touted a Craig and Aitken “moustache trainer” — a device worn at night to ensure the new strip of bristles grew into the perfect shape.

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For more stories and photos like this, see In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday.

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