Palmolive Soap - Very old blue eyes.

Vaguely implied racism news now, from 1947, a time before white people had discovered other races!

Palmolive had their priorities straight. Lots of pictures of women. A bogus "study" funded by the manufacturer... if it ever happened at all. And, one man included in the ad, just to remind women that they craved male attention and approval. However, the guy, being  an anonymous male ideal, is shoved off the edge of the page, since he's just been hired as a symbol of masculinity.

The art in this as consists of retouched photographs (painting right over the top of a photo) and heavily referenced paintings (a painted copy of a photograph, maybe with some props and costume changes dreamed up by the artist). It's worth noting that either all the models hired by the art director were of a carefully selected genetic stock or their eyes were all corrected for "ideal blueness" by the artist, at the direction of the art director.

There's nothing overtly racist about this. It just reveals the prevailing ethnocentric ideal of a more ignorant time. It is also possible that the ad was tailored for McCall's magazine, which probably knew a lot about their readers. Since then, the pendulum has swung to the opposite end of the spectrum, with every ad featuring a happy family consisting of one white mom, one black dad, one Asian child, one Latino child, and an Eskimo. This is just as conspicuous and weird as our monochromatic Palmolive ad.

"There's nothing like the luxury of my new Ether-Soaked Rag."

Speaking of eyes, they're tricky, as we've mentioned before. Almost all of the eyes in this ad have come out of the painting process looking sane and normal, except for the leopard print lady, who is my favorite here, naturally. Her eyelids are way too droopy. She looks like she's selling horse tranquilizers, not soap.

Way at the bottom of the ad, there are even more paintings of serving suggestions of how you might enjoy Palmolive soap, just in case you forgot that you can use it to wash. These little paintings are printed at a size not quite supported by the dot pattern of the printing process. This is good news for us, because if you scan them and blow them up, their wonkiness is revealed for all to enjoy!

It must be bath night.

It's nice of Palmolive to let their customers know that it's perfectly safe to bathe with candy wax lips in your mouth.

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