Core77 has discovered this captivating Flickr pool, “I Love My Electric Appliance!” a collection of vintage advertisements showing women enraptured by their cutting-edge household gadgets.
I Love My Electric Appliance [Flickr.com via Core77]
Previously • Our Flickr Pools Still Bubbling; Welcome Intern Mk. II [BBG]
@ #6, DevoPhill & #8, V:
Me too!!! My grandmother purchased hers for use in the store she worked at when my mom was young. The thing wasn’t all that convenient to use, but my word was the the thing darn near eternal, and had a motor on it that didn’t just purr, it growled. On cold days I loved it because the “exhaust” was nice and toasty. Our family’s gave up the ghost a year ago, and if I hadn’t heard about it after they threw it out, I would have made whatever new part it needed. Good luck trying to get *any* model of vaccuum sold now to last for 45-50 years.
You know why that Electrolux lasts so long? No belts.
As well they should!
Look at all the extra time it leaves them for collecting S&H Green Stamps, buying Tupperware and Betty Crocker cook books!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be smoking my pipe in the den.
When I saw this, I just knew that there would be a photo of one of these. That’s what kept that big ol’ grin on Mom’s face.
I would love to see ads like this for the Nintendo Wii or, say, an awesome vibrator.
Thanks so much for featuring my flickr group on boingboing… the members post such great stuff!!!
As for vintage vibrator ads, you’ll find those in the Her Secret Past – So Dainty, Perky and Fresh! flickr pool!!!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/hersecretpast/
I think that if people realized just how hard it was to be a housewife a half-century ago they would not be so smugly amused by these ads. Not long from now people will be mocking how excited we are by faster processors and bigger drives.
I grew up in a house with that NuTone mixer/blender (and knife sharpener, and juicer, and a few other attachments). It was actually a moderatly nifty solution; it allowed using single motor to drive all these gadgets without consuming counter space when not in use, and the motor could be made a bit heftier because it was permanantly out of sight.
I think the woman in the NuTone ad looks more like she’s about to ingest that child whole. She’s actually sort of terrifying. “How dare you reach for my unfinished sustenance, insolent child!!! You too shall join the sugar and flour in making a delicious confectionery for me and my mate! Bwahahahaha!”
Heh, we had that vacuum too. My mom now has an upright and bitches about how superior the old Electrolux was.
I just took a closer look at what the ads are for–my house (a 50′s prefab) has that NuTone mixer thing built into the kitchen counter…minus the actual mixer and blender, unfortunately.
Hey, that’s my dad’s vacuum! Still.