Vintage Cool

Adelaide is still sweltering in this unseasonal heatwave but I am cool and relaxed in the house.

It is amazing how fast we adjust to rising temperatures. I am sure it must be at least 30 degrees in here but because it is almost 40 outside it feels comparatively 'cool'.

Even more relaxing is that I have the house to myself; my husband has taken the kids to the beach for a late afternoon swim. It's too hot outside for me with my fair, red-headed skin but the rest of the family just love going to the beach.

Having cleaned the house and bought groceries yesterday, I am enjoying a peaceful house and the opportunity for a little web-surfing.

The topic for my web-surfing? I have been looking at vintage commercials for things that are cool; ice cream, cool drinks and refrigerators. I especially like commercials from the 1950s. They display such optimism yet they also anticipate the rampant consumerism of more recent years. All the ads are American as television only came to Australia in 1956.

Here are some examples:

This one is for paper Dixie Cups. Notice that the commercial is addressed to children and they are encouraged to persuade their mothers to buy these 'sanitary' disposable cups and a dispenser.




A very 'cool', glamorous Coca Cola commercial from 1956:





A rather weird ice cream ad with its disembodied heads:




And finally, a General Electric Refrigerator commercial from 1952. I find it amazing that frost-free refrigerators existed in the US in 1952. I don't think they arrived in Australia until the 70s.

Also of interest is the male host's encouragement to buy a fridge on credit; definitely a sign of things to come!