To strive, to seek, to find…

This is the first in an occasional series of posts, allowing us to laugh at magazines from olden times. I’ve decided to do this because I just found a shop called Past Caring that sells these mags, plus tonnes of old tat, and is run by a strange-seeming lady. A standard vintage shop then, found on all London high streets. Here it is:

So, let’s look at these ads. They’re so cute. The magazine, Honey, was published from 1960-1986.

Nothing says Christmas like low-cal soft drinks from a chemist’s, accompanied by a rather sinister tableau, does it? Note the use of Dickens here, with Scrooge making an appearance, and the immortal line, “you too can have a Tiny Tum this Christmas.”

Just imagine those mid-70s ad execs sitting around, discussing this:

Ad Exec A: YES! THAT’S IT! What do people worry about most at Christmas?

Ad Exec B: Having to spend time with their relatives? The shopping? Burning the turkey?

Ad Exec A: [sighs] No, no, no! Putting on weight, naturally. And why?

Ad Exec B: Christmas pudding, all those chocolates, sitting on the-

Ad Exec A: [making mental note to get B fired] Never mind about that! For our purposes, it’s because of all those HIGH-CALORIE FIZZY DRINKS! So, here’s what we’ll do…

Ad Exec B: [thinks] I wish I had gone to law school after all. What was that English degree good for?

Ad Exec A: [burbles on]

Ad Exec B: I KNOW! Let’s call it A Christmas Calorie! You know, because it’s Christmas and, yeah, we can have a picture of Scrooge and make a-

Ad Exec A: Brilliant! Let’s do it! [makes mental note to get B fired ASAP]

This was the illustration that they thought would market Boots best:

Scrooge (or possibly Fagin, who cares, it’s all Dickens isn’t it?) preying upon a small, anthropomorphised egg masquerading as A. Calorie. That just makes you want to buy buy buy, doesn’t it?!

You could tell that Britain was on the brink of the Winter of Discontent.