A Slide Show History of Body-Shaming Ads

This '60s-era ad for vaginal deodorant tells women that their real problem isn't underarm stench—it's "worry-making" odors in the "most girl part" of their bodies.
The reason you're single is because of those noxious fumes from down below, this Lysol ad implies.
Too bad that Lysol was ineffective, not to mention dangerous, when used for its implied purpose as a contraceptive. Used too often or improperly diluted, it burned and blistered the vagina, and in some cases even caused death.
The phrase "often a bridesmaid but never a bride" was made famous by Listerine ads. In one 1925 image, a woman reads another woman's wedding announcement with a troubled expression on her face. "Her case was really a pathetic one," the copy intones, describing the woman as nowhere near marriage "as her birthdays crept gradually toward that tragic thirty mark." The culprit? Halitosis, of course.
Like every woman, Edna's primary ambition was to marry! Too bad that stinky breath is holding her back.
Really hammering home that "often a bridesmaid" junk …
"Many a woman who says, 'No, I am never annoyed at perspiration,' does not know the facts—does not realize how much sweeter and daintier she would be if she were entirely free from it." The facts!
"Be confident of your daintiness," exhorted a 1960 ad for Massengill Powder, offering a " 'clean' refreshing fragrance [that] makes you confident you will not offend."
Like Lysol douche, products such as FDS, Massengill Powder, and Bidette Mist at once aroused anxiety about women's vaginas and offered solutions to the problem.

This slide show originally appeared with the article "The Cure for Your Fugly Armpits: How advertisers create body anxieties women didn't know they had, and then sell them the solution."