Good Housekeeping 1954 – All The Colour Ads

Introduction

These are all of the unique colour ads that ran in Good Housekeeping in 1954. There were 285 unique ads, so that made above 20 full page colour adverts per magazine. I have divided them down into 9 categories. The largest of these is “Food, Drink and Sweets” which has 79 adverts. Surprisingly the least popular category is “Cosmetics and Soap” with only 9 ads. Two years previously, in 1952, they banned tobacco adverts, and so there are none. There are also no ads for gambling, anywhere but that is a sign of the times rather than morality. Most of the ads ran only once, with several running twice and only one, the blinds advert running 4 times. Repetition was not continuous, unlike today’s TV advertising. It is noticeable how most of the brands have disappeared, except for the food brands which are all still going strong. The clothes brands have all evaporated, even out of my memory.

The full resolution copies of the magazines for January to June 1954 are here.

The full resolution copies of the magazines for July to December 1954 are here.