“Ads sell more than products,” says Jean Kilbourne in her acclaimed documentary, Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women. “They sell values. They sell images. They sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success, and perhaps most important, of normalcy. To a great extent, they tell us who we are and who we should be.” So what did the ads generated within the offices lining Madison Avenue in the Mad Men-era tell us about what was considered the norm? What did they say about who women were, and who they should be? A look back at some of the actual ads that ran in Newsweek magazine between 1960 and 1962.
By Jesse Ellison
