How advertisers target insecurities in women

Dove recently unveiled its latest campaign, and it hinges on the idea that your armpits are ugly. Dove Ultimate Go Sleeveless is supposed to give women "softer, smoother underarms in just five days"—in ads for the product, which Stephen Colbert calls a "breakthrough shame-o-vation," women cut the sleeves off their tops with joyful expressions, as if they've been liberated from a terrible scourge. If it's news to you that this part of your body is not so hot, Dove says you're in the minority, citing a survey in which 93 percent of women said they "think their underarms are unattractive." And if you doubt statistics culled from 534 women in an anonymous online poll, rest assured that Dove's best advertising efforts will be directed at making those numbers true.The history of ads directed at women is particularly rich with such fear tactics. Thus, ad copy from the 1920s and '30s warned women of their place in the "beauty contest of life" (a corset manufacturer) and reminded them that "The Eyes of Men …The Eyes of Women/ Judge your Loveliness every day" (Camay soap). A 1953 ad for Chlorodent toothpaste stated point-blank: "There's another woman waiting for every man." Yikes!

This '60s-era ad for vaginal deodorant tells women that their real problem isn't underarm stench—it's "worry-making" odors in the "most girl part" of their bodies.

The reason you're single is because of those noxious fumes from down below, this Lysol ad implies.

Too bad that Lysol was ineffective, not to mention dangerous, when used for its implied purpose as a contraceptive. Used too often or improperly diluted, it burned and blistered the vagina, and in some cases even caused death.

The phrase "often a bridesmaid but never a bride" was made famous by Listerine ads. In one 1925 image, a woman reads another woman's wedding announcement with a troubled expression on her face. "Her case was really a pathetic one," the copy intones, describing the woman as nowhere near marriage "as her birthdays crept gradually toward that tragic thirty mark." The culprit? Halitosis, of course.

Like every woman, Edna's primary ambition was to marry! Too bad that stinky breath is holding her back.

Really hammering home that "often a bridesmaid" junk …

"Many a woman who says, 'No, I am never annoyed at perspiration,' does not know the facts—does not realize how much sweeter and daintier she would be if she were entirely free from it." The facts!

"Be confident of your daintiness," exhorted a 1960 ad for Massengill Powder, offering a " 'clean' refreshing fragrance [that] makes you confident you will not offend."

Like Lysol douche, products such as FDS, Massengill Powder, and Bidette Mist at once aroused anxiety about women's vaginas and offered solutions to the problem.

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