Wednesday, January 23, 2008

In 1976, love was free and pure and innocent. And about 10.

You think American Apparel underage models are sleazy? Ad is for Love's Baby Soft fragrance products, from a 1976 issue of Tiger Beat. Unearthed by FishNChimps, whose ad blog reading level is "Genius." (mine's "Junior High School.")

17 Comments:

Blogger A-Dub said...

OK, I'm drunk right now and this ad is disturbing as fuck!

12:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, it was the era of "Pretty Baby" Brooke Shields and "Taxi Driver" Jodie Foster, so creepy sexualizing of girls was in the air.
Really that just makes things worse...

12:45 PM  
Blogger RFB said...

Chimps gets that rating for throwing around big words he reads in The Guardian.

Interesting shape for the bottle/container.

1:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

JonBenet in a previous incarnation. Terrifying.

3:12 PM  
Blogger Mona said...

ever since your absolut ad post i've been hooked. thanks for the entertainment copyranter. i needed it today...

3:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good to see the photographer saved time by having her pose with the actual doll police would later use for her to point out where she was touched.

I wonder what the odds are she's currently working as a stripper?

4:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When I was a kid, I adored Love's Baby Soft AND Tiger Beat.

Hello small town, U.S.A.!

4:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That image actually makes my flesh crawl.

It has that little-girl-beauty-pageant quality that I find so disgusting.

Ugh.

5:01 PM  
Blogger Romius T. said...

Maybe innocence is just sexier than you think.

3:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh holy crap is that wrong!!!

7:27 AM  
Blogger watchwhathappens said...

what 3lvishasleftthebuilding said!

that's the creepy pageant girl look of today.

2:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Suddenly, that Maurice Chevalier song floats through my head:

"Thank heaven for little girls
for little girls get bigger every day!

Thank heaven for little girls
they grow up in the most delightful way!

Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
one day will flash and send you crashin' thru the ceilin'

Thank heaven for little girls
thank heaven for them all,
no matter where no matter who
for without them, what would little boys do?

Thank heaven... thank heaven...
Thank heaven for little girls! "

3:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even Roman Polanski finds this disturbing.

8:36 PM  
Blogger @msdayvt said...

I was caught shoplifting some of this stuff - love's babysoft - when I was thirteen. I was at K-Mart with my mom and had to have it, but she wouldn't let me.
Really, we should read too much into it. The creepiness wasn't obvious to us back then. Pedophelia was barely heard of. Brooke and Jodi were new phenomena. It was a different time. But it sure does seem amazing that these ads were in mainstream mags back then....

11:13 PM  
Blogger M Girl said...

Sexy should, in no way be associated with a girl that young. This ad way creepy, no matter what decade it was. Just because pedophilia wasn't discussed openly back then, it doesn't mean that it happened less often.

2:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the sixties as a very little girl actress/model in Hollywood, it was normal for pro photographers to try and evoke sexiness. I never questioned what they asked me to do. Back then, no one talked about molestation or rape, really. Certainly, no one would if they wanted to have a future in Hollywood. It makes me sick now when I think of all the people that must have known what went on at certain sessions.

But in this ad, the model doesn't look underage to me--just styled to look underage.

4:19 PM  
Anonymous Lex said...

This girl looks so familiar, I mean putting aside momentarily the fact that this is the creepiest ad i've ever seen in my life, i'm trying to find out what the name of that girl is. I wonder how much therapy she needed after that one. Who would let their child be portrayed in that fashion? Oh, a still shot of the Ramsey's (Jon Benet) just popped into my head. People are sick. But yeah anyone know the name of that girl? Message me on facebook, "Tex Lex".

7:17 PM  

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