Kelloggs Special K: Oxford Street

1970
Sound
1m

Eye-wateringly sexist breakfast cereal ad advising women how to stay trim and stave off that puppy fat.

"You can't call that puppy fat when you're no longer a puppy," chides the male narrator of this breakfast cereal ad, over extreme close-ups of female shoppers’ posteriors (or, "you-know-what"). Some ads have aged better than others, and the sheer sexism of this one is hard to top. In 1970 the keep-fit boom was a little way off, but the pressure on women to stay 'trim' had already saturated the media. The marketing of calorie-controlled diets via convenience products like this would gain momentum into the 1980s and beyond.

Cheeky advert for a low calorie breakfast that includes a bowl of Kellogg’s Special K cereal. Emphasises the size of a woman's bottom as a way of persuading women to diet and eat a different breakfast. Presumably shot on Oxford Street.

What Women Want?

Caring mums, hard-working housewives or independent, fun-loving 'new women' - the female consumer has long been a target of screen advertising.

In the cause of selling anything from baked beans to washing powders to all manner of labour-saving devices, advertisers have promised to make women's lives easier and to help them build happy homes and successful relationships.

There's no getting past the fact that women have all-too often been patronised and objectified by a male-dominated advertising industry. But screen advertising also tells (and sells) a more positive story of social progress for women, with increasing social and economic independence. This collection tracks the ups and downs of female empowerment in the 20th century, with its false steps as revealing as its forward ones.