These old-fashioned weight loss ads prove we’ve always wanted a quick diet fix… from soap that ‘washes away’ fat to slimming pills made of TAPEWORMS
The hilarious images – many taken from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century – reveal the history behind today’s £47billion pound diet industry
IF you thought fad diets were a 21st century phenomenon, think again.
From dangerous amphetamines to tapeworm pills, these are the vintage adverts for quick fix weight loss products through the ages.
These outrageous adverts prove that people have always been willing to try any fashionable yet questionable diet to drop a few pounds.
Whether that meant only eating peanut butter sandwiches in the 1970s or slenderising “Space Age” jeans, they were plenty of crazes to choose between.
The hilarious images – many taken from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century – reveal the history behind today’s £47billion pound diet industry.
Many of the posters make improbable promises to the despairing dieter.
Sweet deal?
Soap and glory
Worth the weight?
A 1970s flyer promises customers they will lose a whopping three inches off their waist in three days if they use their bizarre “Sauna Belt”.
Whilst another contemporary “Jif Diet” advert tells women they can return to their high school dress size if they dine on peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner for two months.
Meanwhile other images promote even stranger weight loss aids.
What a drag
Shirting the issue
Fancy a soak?
A 1910s advert for Dr Walter’s Famous Medicated Rubber garments claims you can lose fat in specific areas by wearing their unusual headgear or stocking.
Whilst a mid-twentieth century advert for the “Magic Couch” claims customers can shed pounds simply by sitting on a special chair.
However some of the retro weight-loss products featured in this collection are far more dangerous – such as a 1950s advert for the Preludin appetite suppressant, which tells women to free their inner skinny self by consuming the drug.
Chew on this
Snack happy
Slim pickings
Need to note?
Below the belt?
Slim-credible?
Meet and seat
Thigh's the limit
Put your foot in it
Don't open this can of worms
Soap opera
Walk this way
Bite of the action
Waisting away
Preludin (the brand name for the Phenmetrazin) was an amphetamine drug, which was famously taken by The Beatles early in their career so they could perform for hours.
Due to concerns of abuse and addiction, the appetite suppressant was classified as a narcotic in the 1960s and taken off the market.
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