How to Find a Husband and Keep Him, and Other 1950s Advice
True Romance magazine, November 1951
My mom read romance magazines when she was 14 years old?
I found this gem beneath the drawers of her old bedroom dresser, which had been sitting in the corner of my childhood home for decades. It had been hidden away for 72 years…
Check out some of this copy:
From a Listerine ad: You naturally want her to grow up to be attractive and sought after, you hope she will meet nice boys and marry one of them. Of course you do. When she’s a little older you will encourage her to guard her charm and daintiness. You will, of course, see to that, above all, her breath is sweet and wholesome. For without such appealing freshness, her other good points may count for little.
From Mum Cream Deodorant: Never let your dream man down by risking underarm perspiration odor. Stay nice to be near--guard the daintiness he adores.
Woodbury Makeup: Woodbury Powder gives your skiing the delicate prettiness of a romantic beauty. And how men love it!
Zonite Feminine Hygiene: Once a woman realizes how important the practice of complete hygiene is to married happiness, her health, after her periods, and to combat a grave odor at its source--how much happier her life can be.
Pond’s Cold Cream: It’s not vanity to help your face look lovely. When you know you look your prettiest self, a captivating confidence sparkles in your face--attracts others to you on sight!
True Romance magazine was written and edited (barely!) for young women with stars in their eyes; every article and every ad was created with the intention of getting a certain someone to notice you.
Did True Romance know who they were talking to? Absolutely.
Sage advice of the times, in both the editorial and the advertising copy.
They had a specific message for a particular consumer--teenagers and young women whose goal it was to snag a boyfriend, and the tips and tricks needed to smell, look, and act “the right way” to get him to propose. Once married, it was important to be the perfect wife, so, to that end, you could sew the dress-of-the-month to look pretty when he came home from work, could lose the baby weight, and must create a beautiful, inviting home that was his haven.
It all worked. The magazine is filled with editorial that addresses the needs of their readers,and the copy in the plentiful ads solves the real problems the readers are having.
Messaging and marketing hasn’t changed since the days of the Playtex Fab-Lined Girdle:
Figure out who your customer is, define her problem, and tell her how your product or service fixes her up.
Simple and done.
By the way, my research says that the magazine was created in the early 1920s, and lived--in some form--into the 1980s. It was published monthly in New York by Macfadden Publications. Macfadden Communications is still around, and the founder Bernarr Mcfadden has an interesting story. This article is an engaging read.
#marketing #advertising #trueromance #contentmarketing #sales