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A day in the life of… . . .  .  .

            A few years ago, there was a series of books of photographic studies, that the titles started with “A day in the life  

of ... .  .”, that photographically followed an average person through an average day, some where in the world.

            O.K., so I was a teenager in the “fabulous fifty’s” (1950’s that is) and every so often get all misty eyed and nostalgic about some of the iconic things and advertising slogans of that era in North America that seem to have gone the way of  ”Willkie (campaign) Buttons” (Wendell L. Willkie was the unsuccessful candidate running against Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 U.S. Presidential election).

In the midst of one of these reveries, I got to thinking what it would have been for an advertising man to do “A day in the life of a person in North America”, from the prospective of the advertising in the 1950’s and 1960’s, so here goes.

            Getting ready to go out into the world each day, after brushing your teeth with Pepsodent Tooth Paste (“you’ll wonder where the yellow went, if you brush your teeth with Pepsodent”)  if you were a lady, you were advised to use Ivory Soap (that was “99 and 44, 100% pure”), and Clairol Shampoo (“Does she, or doesn’t she?”)

            If you were a guy, you were advised by Gillette Blue Blades to “Look Sharp, Feel Sharp, Be Sharp”. And who could ignore the warnings of Brylcreem (a men’s hairdressing that advised “A little dab’ll do ya’”), or Hi Karate (a men’s after shave that had self-defense instructions with each bottle), that too much could make you irresistible to women and lead to possible attacks. Or the sexy lady that told you that “There’s something about an Aqua Velva Man” (Aqua Velva was another aftershave).

             This was just before you slipped into your Jockey Shorts (“The best seat in the house”), and had your Quaker Puffed Rice or Puffed Wheat (that was “Shot from Guns”). Of course you needed to put some Borden’s Milk (“If it’s Borden’s, it’s got to be good”) on your cereal, and spread some Smucker’s Jam (“With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good”) on your Wonder Bread Toast.

            After you finished eating, you’d lite up a Lucky Strike (“LSMFT  Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco”) or Old Gold ( for “A treat instead of a treatment”) Cigarette, while the ladies checked to be sure they had put the  Duz Laundry Soap (“Duz does everything”) in the Westinghouse washer (“You can be sure if it’s Westinghouse”).

            After all of this, you’d go out to take Dinah Shore’s lyrical advice to “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet”.

            At lunch time you might have a Tuna Salad Sandwich made with Star Kist Tuna (“Sorry Charlie, Star Kist only wants Tuna that tastes good, not Tuna with good taste”), and a cold Miller (“The champagne of bottled beer”), Schlitz (“The beer that made Milwaukee famous”) or Carling’s Black Label (“Hey Mabel, Black Label”) beer.

            Later in the afternoon, you might “sneak” in a Pepsi Cola (with “More bounce to the once”).

            For dinner, you might have a pasta dish of some variety that had a sauce made with Contadina Tomato Paste (“How did they get eight great tomato’s in that little bitty can”) and then set down to watch the Sid Caesar's “Show of shows” on your RCA T.V. (“His master’s voice”), sponsored by Nestle’s (“N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle’s  makes the very best shaucolte [a slurred choclate]”).

            That pretty well covers an ad man’s version of a typical 1950-1960’s day in ‘merican life.

            An interesting foot note to this is that in the beginning, I wrote a note about the 1940 U.S. Presidential election that was won by Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his first inaugural speech in 1932, he used the phrase “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself”. Ironically, recently I was in a Southeast Asian country that was having an election, and saw the quote on a political poster (correctly attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt). After 76 years, that statement's still pretty much true.

          Until next time, ya’ll have a rice day