# Better Homes & Gardens 1959 ad "Just like Mommies panty & bra set" for little girls. Fake or real?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 30, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609 "2012-12-30T22:59:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/1 "2012-12-30T22:59:37Z")
[Ad here.](http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t464/monkapotamus/154490_588848057799460_999311030_n.jpg) Is this real or fake?
[I found this link](http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/04/15/vintage-ad-for-just-like-mommies-bra-set/) which seems to take it at face value.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/2 "2012-12-30T23:17:11Z")
In the 1950’s, I shopped for my first bra well before I really needed one. Bras were available in really small sizes, not just chest sizes but cup sizes. AAA cup? You don’t need a bra but maybe you want to be like mommy, or maybe you’re slow to develop but all your friends are wearing them.
So I can believe the ad.
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### Author:  [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/3 "2012-12-30T23:27:19Z")
I’ve been wondering if that old Vaseline add is real. The one that says “caring dads always lube”. This one:
> **[Vaseline Add](https://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/2158901/Vaseline/)**
>
> Vaseline Add. Well, old times were fun for advertising.
Is this real? If it is, what does it mean?
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/4 "2012-12-30T23:29:36Z")
Playing “dress-up” with Mommy’s high-heel shoes, etc., was so common (and innocent) in the 1950’s as to be a cliché. I can believe the ad.
But it’s entirely possible it’s not from a mainstream publication, even if from the back pages. Do we give the same credibility to “X-Ray Vision” goggles sold in comic books?
Nevertheless, I think it’s an extreme reaction to be seriously concerned about a vintage ad.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/5 "2012-12-31T00:03:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Is this real? If it is, what does it mean?
Preventing diaper rash?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/6 "2012-12-31T01:08:05Z")
> [@FloatyGimpy](#):
>
> I’ve been wondering if that old Vaseline add is real. The one that says “caring dads always lube”. This one:
>
> [Vaseline Add](http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/2158901/Vaseline/)
>
> Is this real? If it is, what does it mean?
No cite, but I’ve read it’s a fake ad that was originally posted as a joke on some comedy website but it’s realistic enough looking that it’s been circulated as real.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/7 "2012-12-31T01:26:43Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> [Ad here.](http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t464/monkapotamus/154490_588848057799460_999311030_n.jpg) Is this real or fake?
>
> [I found this link](http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/04/15/vintage-ad-for-just-like-mommies-bra-set/) which seems to take it at face value.
It appears to be real. I traced it back to a blog that does vintage photos, and it was picked up by Boing Boing and spread from there.
> [@FloatyGimpy](#):
>
> I’ve been wondering if that old Vaseline add is real. The one that says “caring dads always lube”. This one:
>
> [Vaseline Add](http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/2158901/Vaseline/)
>
> Is this real? If it is, what does it mean?
This one is a known hoax.
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### Author:  [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/8 "2012-12-31T02:33:00Z")
I vote “fake”.
For starters, I was a little girl in roughly that era, and I don’t remember anything like that ever being even mentioned.
The pose and garments would have been considered a bit risque even for grown-ups. Mainstream lingerie modeling was a specialty area, and models’ faces were often not shown.
Thirdly, _Better Homes and Gardens_ would have been a very odd placement for any apparel advertising, let alone children’s garments.
Not to mention: the ad copy has multiple anomalies. For example, “mommy” is the singular spelling, not “mommie”. The size range is given as “2-12”, when the lower end of that range would be in diapers and the usual girls’ range was 6-12.
I don’t think it’s plausible as something authentically from 1959 even aimed at a pedophile market. Which wouldn’t have been trolling the back pages of BH&G for their specialty.
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### Author:  [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/9 "2012-12-31T04:29:59Z")
I don’t think this is a real ad either but one of my cousins did have a bra made for little girls we were about 7 at the time I saw it and said "what is that? as I remember she called a camisole but it was definately more like a bra than a camisole as I know it. She did a lot of performing (dance recitals etc) so it may have been an underlayer for a costume.
( I am a girl so no ickyness about me seeing her underwear)
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/10 "2012-12-31T04:56:24Z")
> [@FeAudrey](#):
>
> The pose and garments would have been considered a bit risque even for grown-ups. Mainstream lingerie modeling was a specialty area, and models’ faces were often not shown.
>
> Thirdly, _Better Homes and Gardens_ would have been a very odd placement for any apparel advertising, let alone children’s garments.
On second viewing, maybe you’re onto something. It looks like there’s a child’s head on an adult’s body. The arms are thin and the legs are too shapely. Also, the ad wouldn’t have “Better Homes and Gardens 1959” as part of the copy.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/11 "2012-12-31T05:01:33Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> On second viewing, maybe you’re onto something. It looks like there’s a child’s head on an adult’s body. The arms are thin and the legs are too shapely. Also, the ad wouldn’t have “Better Homes and Gardens 1959” as part of the copy.
Actually I think you’re correct on both those issues. In looking closely that’s a pretty unusual body for a little girl relative to the size of her head, and the “BH&G 1959” note at the bottom makes no sense for the ad to waste precious space on.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/12 "2012-12-31T05:28:54Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> On second viewing, maybe you’re onto something. It looks like there’s a child’s head on an adult’s body. The arms are thin and the legs are too shapely. Also, the ad wouldn’t have “Better Homes and Gardens 1959” as part of the copy.
That’s what I was thinking. The high heels caught my attention first. If she was prancing around in huge shoes that belonged to mom, that would be one thing, but those shoes fit the girl. After that, I noticed the ‘done due’. She’s supposed to be advertising the bra and panties but her hair is done up like a 1950’s house wife and that’s all she’s looking at. It almost seems like it might be an ad for Aquanet or hot rollers.
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/13 "2012-12-31T05:55:28Z")
It’s **very** skillfully done, but I don’t think Dallas used the five-digit P.O. box numbers in the postal zone era. In fact, I don’t think Dallas ever had five-digit P.O. boxes at all; they jumped straight from four-digit ones to six-digit ones where the first two digits are the zone number sometime in the 60s.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/14 "2012-12-31T05:59:28Z")
There is a rather sick meme on [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) that some posters seem to think is funny.
It’s involves a popsicle, some little girls in bathing suits and a slogan captioned underneath. (Sorry to be so vague, but that’s the best I can bring myself to do.)
The slogan itself isn’t all that bad but used in juxtaposition with these girls poses makes you think WTF?!
It was a long time before I found out that ad was fake.
Thank god.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/15 "2012-12-31T06:36:09Z")
I’m still thinking about it. It’s creeping me out.
The fakeness isn’t because the body doesn’t match the head. That’s just poor artwork.
It’s because of the BH&G 1959 across the bottom. Like **astro** says, it’s a waste of ad space, and why would A&B Sales want to use their ad to pimp BH&G?
An ad for Ivory soap might have the Good Housekeeping Seal, and an ad for GE light bulbs might have the UL logo, but they’re not going to have the name of the magazine or the date of publication.
And like **FeAudrey** says, the sizes are wrong. Sizes for little girls would have started with 6, not 2.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/16 "2012-12-31T06:44:11Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> It’s because of the BH&G 1959 across the bottom. Like **astro** says, it’s a waste of ad space, and why would A&B Sales want to use their ad to pimp BH&G?
Just to argue the ‘it’s real’ side. The ad doesn’t continue all the way down. If you look at the boarder on the left, it stops at the bottom of the picture. If one wanted to argue that it’s a real ad, they would/could easily argue that it’s not scanned out of an actual magazine, but maybe out of something historical. Perhaps a the manufacturer or advertiser or copywriter or someone somewhere along the line kept a copy for themselves and printed out the BH&G/1959 line and posted that underneath so they knew where it came from and _that’s_ what we’re seeing.
It would be like arguing that [this](http://blog.ewmfg.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/framed-ajc-article-e1346436291510.jpg) or [this](http://www.pizzaboy2.com/images/pizzaboy2article.jpg) isn’t real because they shouldn’t be front page news when in reality they’re just cut and pasted together for the presentation.
ETA, I just googled “framed article” to get those two links, I didn’t actually read them, they just looked too unimportant to be front page news.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/17 "2012-12-31T13:54:32Z")
My connection is working today so I think I found the original page.
[Thursday, April 14, 2011 To be a kid in the good 'ol days! #4](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-be-kid-in-good-ol-days-4.html)
[Sunday, April 17, 2011 Just Like Mommy!](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/just-like-mommy.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Just in case anyone thinks I make this stuff up- what your child would actually find wrapped under the Christmas tree if the “Just Like Mommie’s Panty & Bra Set” were ordered!
>
> The M.O’C archives are filled to the rim with the weird, wonderful and wacky, sexy, sexist and strange… all for your viewing pleasure!
And the rest of the series:
[To be a kid in the good 'ol days! #3 [Smoking Cowboy Doll]](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-be-kid-in-good-ol-days-3.html)
[To be a kid in the good 'ol days! #2 [Child-size TV camera]](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-be-kid-in-good-ol-days-2.html)
[To be a kid in the good 'ol days! #1 [space beanie]](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-be-kid-in-good-ol-days-1.html)
Others from April 2011:
[“Don’t let Daddy lick me again!”](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/odd-moments-in-advertising-also-known_28.html)
NSFW:
[Not a kid, but it will disturb you even more](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/great-moments-in-advertising.html)
The design and typography is perfect for the time period. Either it’s a hoax so good it fooled him or it’s real.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/18 "2012-12-31T14:04:19Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> The fakeness isn’t because the body doesn’t match the head. That’s just poor artwork.
“Poor artwork” can explain a lot. If real, this wasn’t a full-page, full-color ad that an art dept spent days on.
> [@](#):
>
> It’s because of the BH&G 1959 across the bottom. Like **astro** says, it’s a waste of ad space, and why would A&B Sales want to use their ad to pimp BH&G?
The credit might have been added later. When I cut out clippings, I usually add info like that, defining the source.
> [@](#):
>
> And like **FeAudrey** says, the sizes are wrong. Sizes for little girls would have started with 6, not 2.
Could the “size” be age? I know little about such things, but when I first saw it, that’s what I thought. I remember wearing a size 6 when I was about 6 yo.
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> On second viewing, maybe you’re onto something. It looks like there’s a child’s head on an adult’s body. The arms are thin and the legs are too shapely. Also, the ad wouldn’t have “Better Homes and Gardens 1959” as part of the copy.
The B&H could have been added by the archivist, and it’s only cheap artwork. I don’t think we can expect much from the artist.
> [@FeAudrey](#):
>
> Thirdly, _Better Homes and Gardens_ would have been a very odd placement for any apparel advertising, let alone children’s garments.
I agree, but it was in the back pages, where many pubs had junkier ads.
> [@](#):
>
> Not to mention: the ad copy has multiple anomalies. For example, “mommy” is the singular spelling, not “mommie”.
Cheap ad copy writers aren’t the best source of spelling rules. If the ad writer thought “mommie” would sell, I’m sure it would be used, rules be damned.
I think the only way we can settle this is to get a copy of the original Better Homes mag. Not knowing which of 12 possible editions from 1959 makes it harder. Checking online, I haven’t been able to find all issues, all pages available, even in Google Scholar.
There is a newspaper archive site which offers a free 7 day trial, but I can’t find out if it shows newspapers only or includes magazines.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/19 "2012-12-31T14:33:48Z")
I get the impression that the Mitch O’Connell site has real ads, even though he is listed as an artist. Samples of his art work don’t match the vintage ads in the slightest.
And it’s possible that he is merely repeating stuff from other secondary sources without question.
I emailed the address given for him. Let’s see if he will reply.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609/20 "2012-12-31T14:53:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> My connection is working today so I think I found the original page.
>
> [Thursday, April 14, 2011 To be a kid in the good 'ol days! #4](http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-be-kid-in-good-ol-days-4.html)
Heh. I’ve met Mitch at an art show in Pittsburgh. Very cool guy. He had a bunch of art done on skateboards. I bought a shirt he designed with a pink elephant and “never forget to get drunk” on it. I was wearing that shirt when I went through a DUI checkpoint and the cops all laughed at my nervousness.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-homes-gardens-1959-ad-just-like-mommies-panty-bra-set-for-little-girls-fake-or-real/645609.md?page=2)