Monday, March 17, 2008

Foundations Of Our Dysfunctionality



Grape - NUTS

Once in a while I visit a website called Plan59. It is a blog that displays advertising imagery from the 1930s through the 1970s. Pretty weird stuff sometimes. (click on the title if you want to stroll through it)

The site shows a society focused on image and wanton consumerism where the sky was the limit. It also shows the beginnings of our downfall. Every once in a while I find an image posted there that really hits home.

Such as the one above, of a mother and daughter in matching outfits from a Post Grape-Nuts ad published in 1958. The message being, that eating Grape-Nuts helps mother AND her daughter loose weight, so that they can both have 15 inch waists.

Now I know where our fascination with liposuction, botox injections and breast augmentation all started. It has been with us for generations. I wonder if Post every did a study on how many anorexic women they created by hocking Post Grape-Nuts with this theme.

8 comments:

  1. mmmmmmmmmm. Grape Nuts. Luv 'em. So much so that there is no way I would ever achieve a 15 inch waist as a result. More like a 50 inch WASTE.

    Still, nuthin beats them.

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  2. Those are some freakish waists. It's a shame. It's impossible to achieve as it is. The mother doesn't need to pass that onto her daughter(s). I'm not sure much has changed from the 50s. Geesh!

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  3. Har! Wow, there must be some strange stuff there, looking at it 50 years on. How far we've come, eh?

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  4. That's crazy. I'm going to go check out that website, thanks.

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  5. I love Grape Nuts cereal! Your entry gives a lot to think about. You should forward it to the Grape Nuts company, it'll be interesting to see if they respond and if so what they say.

    Just wanted to say thank you for the comment you left on my latest entry- 'Here We Go Again.' Sometimes it's just so hard to ignore an idiot and I know this person lives on my anger and must applaud himself each time I do write about him.

    XOXOXOXO,
    Cocaine Princess

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  6. Weird that you and Anna posted about Grape Nuts on the same day.

    Was it a "chicken and egg" thing, or just a coincidence?

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  7. Purely coincidental, I posted mine, then I read hers, told her about it, and she read mine.....I am sure planets are colliding somewhere because of this.

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  8. i like grape nuts too or did before i decided that i hate food overall. 15-inch waist,eh? Thanks for the new goal!

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