Floral Decorators, Rubbermaid, April 1973

At some point during the mid-20th century, the household bathroom began to change from a mostly utilitarian space to a room worthy of extensive decorator touches. Gone were the days of  a room with stark white toilets and sinks, with plain towel rods and cold linoleum on the floor, and in its place emerged a space in which no detail was too small to become part of the decor. Color and pattern began filling nearly every inch, from bath tissue boxes to wastebaskets to coordinated toilet tissue rolls to borders on towels and washcloths. A product such as Rubbermaid's Floral Decorators would fit nicely into this scheme.

Floral Decorators were rubber panels which were available in a raised antique cane or floral design, and in a variety of decorator colors. The panels came with self-adhesive strips which could be attached to any hard surface. The ovals were primarily intended for the top of toilet seat lids, and the rectangles for the doors of medicine chests and vanities and the top of the tank lid, although the panels could be used on the wall or other spaces or rooms as the decorator wished.

At a time when many elements of bathroom decor featured fabrics and materials that were notoriously difficult to keep clean, Floral Decorators actually made a lot of sense. They were a way to add a pop of color to the toilet without resorting to the fuzzy carpeted seat and tank covers that were attractive but somewhat unsanitary; the panels could simply be wiped clean with a damp cloth. And, if the decorator wished to change the color scheme, the panels could be simply peeled off.

Some decorating trends of the 1970s seem a bit over-the-top in retrospect, but this one seems to be less so than many. After all, even a practical room such as the bathroom deserves a little color and decorator love.

Instant Breakfast, Carnation, August 1966

Prior to 1966, the leisurely breakfast was an important part of the routine of many households. But as more women began entering the workforce, suburban and rural workers faced longer commutes to work, and children became involved in more activities, the preparation of traditional breakfast fare such as bacon and eggs or even cereal seemed too time-consuming for many. The dilemma arose as to how to create a breakfast product that would be extremely quick to prepare and consume, yet still provide the same amount of nutrition as a meal would. Carnation rose to this challenge with its Instant Breakfast.

Instant Breakfast had first been developed by Carnation in 1964, but was available only to consumers in a small number of test markets until early 1966, when it became more widely distributed. Each package of Instant Breakfast consisted of six pouches of flavored mix which could be stirred into a glass of milk. Each prepared Instant Breakfast was touted to provide the equivalent amount of protein, vitamins and minerals as a traditional breakfast with eggs, bacon, buttered toast and orange juice. The product came in a variety of flavors, including Chocolate Malt, Vanilla, Strawberry and the best-selling Chocolate. My favorite, however, was the Eggnog flavor, which was especially delicious and tasted very much like the real thing rather than just a powdered imitation.

Instant Breakfast has been an enduring product over the last 50 years, as it is still available in supermarkets and online, and in several flavors (although, unfortunately, not Eggnog). It seems that consumers are still very much in search of the quick yet nourishing breakfast that Instant Breakfast provides.

Diet 7-Up, The Seven-Up Company, July 1981

The use of celebrities has long been an effective means to promote a product both in TV and radio commercials and in print media. It's not unreasonable to assume that if consumers see a celebrity they admire touting the virtues of a product or service, they will be more likely to try it themselves. Another successful technique often used by advertisers is introducing humor in ads in an attempt to entertain consumers and associate positive emotions with the product. This 7-Up ad, one of several used during the years 1979 to 1981 featuring Lynda Carter and Don Rickles, utilized both of these methods.

At the time this ad was published, Lynda had wrapped up a successful run as the star of the TV series Wonder Woman just two years prior and had appeared in several movies. Don Rickles had made appearances in numerous TV series and movies, and was well known for his pointed and sometimes insulting humor. The 7-Up ad campaign paired the two of them in various environments, trading good-natured barbs over the diet drink. One of Lynda's catchphrases was that it "did not have the funny diet taste," referring to the aftertaste from saccharin, the most commonly used sweetener for diet sodas at that time. Although Diet 7-Up did contain a sugar substitute, the lemon-lime flavor masked the chemical aftertaste more successfully than was the case with the diet colas of the day.

Diet 7 Up has undergone quite a few changes since 1981; it is now sweetened with aspartame rather than saccharin, and is available in a cherry-flavored version in addition to the original. It would have been interesting to have Lynda and Don reunited in a newer campaign, poking good-natured fun at each other over a glass of Diet Cherry 7-Up. The result would likely have been just as entertaining and successful as it was in 1979-81.

The New Book of Knowledge, Grolier Incorporated, November 1968

Those of us of a certain age may remember the encyclopedia salesperson, who went door-to-door in many neighborhoods in search of families who wanted to enrich their children's educations through purchasing encyclopedias and related reference books. Such books were available for use in libraries of course, but the salesperson emphasized the convenience of having the books instantly available at home whenever a child needed to utilize them for a school assignment or just for leisure reading and exploration.There were several prominent encyclopedia sets available during the late 1960s and 1970s, including the Encyclopaedia Brittanica and the World Book Encyclopedia. Also available was The New Book of Knowledge, the encyclopedia intended specifically for children.

Most encyclopedias of the era were written at one reading level for all the topics covered in them. The New Book of Knowledge's approach was a bit different in that it tailored the reading level of the topic to the grade in which a child was most likely to study that subject. For instance, an article on basic addition and subtraction would be written at around a first grade level, while an article on photosynthesis would likely feature the language and syntax of the upper elementary grades. The goal was to make sure a child could easily understand the subjects presented, but also to provide more challenging reading material in more advanced subjects...an encyclopedia which could "grow" with the child's needs. To keep the material up-to-date, Grolier published a supplemental volume each year of various timely topics and new developments.

Advances in technology have made the door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson a relic of the past, and even hardbound encyclopedia sets such as The New Book of Knowledge themselves are fairly scarce nowadays except in schools and libraries. But years ago, long before there was an internet, they were an essential part of childrens' research projects and a window into unexplored worlds. They were the "Google" for us Baby Boomer and Generation X kids.

King Vitaman Cereal, Quaker Oats Company, August 1974

In 1974, there was no shortage of cereals available in the typical North American supermarket. Dozens of varieties filled the shelves, from corn to wheat to rice, flakes to O's to shapes, sweetened or unsweetened, and flavors from strawberry to chocolate to blueberry and everything in between. There were even varieties that were specially formulated to meet most if not all of an individual's daily requirements for many vitamins and minerals, and one of those was King Vitaman.

King Vitaman had been introduced in 1968 as a healthier alternative to the higher-sugar cereal brands commonly favored by children. In addition to its somewhat lower sugar content, each serving provided 100% of the recommended daily allowance for the key vitamins and iron. However, being a children's cereal, something more than just good nutritional content was needed to appeal to youngsters. The cereal itself consisted of a corn and oat base in the shape of little crowns with holes in the center, and the image of a smiling King Vitaman was imprinted across the front of each box. There were even a series of commercials featuring a cartoon-style King Vitaman and his pals in a variety of adventures and misadventures, and a prize such as a miniature racing car or a mask was frequently included in each box.

The animated commercials, prizes, and the interesting shape of the cereal would have appealed most to kids such as 10-year-old Shawn Condylis pictured with her cat in this ad. But for her mother, Nancy, it was the nutritional content that was most important, and the assurance that Shawn would able to enjoy a nutritious breakfast even while having a mother who worked outside the home. That concept seems very commonplace today, but in 1974, with fewer women (and particularly mothers of young children) in the workforce, it was a bit less of the norm.

42 years after the publication of this ad, King Vitaman is still available in some markets. Perhaps it is even a favorite of Shawn's children or grandchildren.

Disc Cameras, Eastman Kodak Company, October 1982

The Eastman Kodak Company had long been at the forefront of new developments in pocket camera technology. Over the years, the company had introduced camera models with various unique and useful features, including built-in flash capabilities and instant print film. In 1982, the company decided to create an entirely different style of pocket camera, the Disc.

As the ad stated, the Disc had a built-in flash with an extremely rapid flash rate, a feature that was quite unusual among pocket camera models of the day. It also boasted an automatic advance function which eliminated the need to manually advance the film after each exposure. The most prominent innovation, however, was the shape and structure of the film itself. Rather than a roll of film encased in a plastic cartridge, the Disc camera's film pack consisted a flat rotating disc with a capacity of 15 exposures. Because the disc was so thin, it allowed Kodak to design a camera body that was slimmer and more compact than its traditional pocket cousins such as the Instamatic.

A slender pocket camera with many automatic features seemed like a good idea in theory, and many consumers agreed, as more than 25 million Disc cameras were sold between 1982 and 1988. But for all the nifty features, the Disc suffered from one major and fundamental flaw: picture quality. Because the area for the negative was confined to a tiny rectangle on the edge of the disc rather than the larger space of traditional film rolls and cartridges, the resolution of the photos was limited, and photos often appeared grainy and blurred when developed from the discs, especially if they were enlarged. Additionally, many photo finishers did not have the necessary equipment required to process the Disc negatives, so this resulted in longer waits for the finished prints. These drawbacks, plus the growing popularity of lower-priced 35mm models, eventually caused the public to lose interest in the Disc cameras, and Eastman Kodak ceased production of them in early 1988. Film discs continued to be manufactured until December 1999, and nearly 17 years later, only a few photo developers still process Disc film.

It's interesting that digital and smartphone cameras have become smaller and smaller, all without sacrificing picture quality or features. With analog cameras such as the Disc, unfortunately, miniaturization came at a price.

Esso Service Stations, Humble Oil and Refining Company, September 1963

There are certain advertisements that seem especially evocative of the era in which they were created, and this one is a perfect example of that. So many elements of this Esso ad are reflective of a lost era, when even a stop at a service station could be a fun and memorable experience.

In the 1960s, as construction of the United States interstate system was well underway, many families took extended road trips as a part of their vacations. And for these trips, the full-service gas station was a key part of the experience. Not only could motorists have their tanks filled by the station attendant (a service that is rare in much of North America today except for New Jersey and Oregon), but could also have their oil and fluids checked and their windshields cleaned. There were also maps available for the taking, with guidance as to the best routes to take for a particular destination (this was *long*before the days of GPS!) And of course, as most road travellers would have agreed in 1963 (as well as today), clean restrooms were a must. At a time when facilities at service stations could be very hit or miss, Esso/Humble  prided itself on its sparkling restrooms (and even promoted them with prominent signage indicating just that).

In this ad we see a typical family of the time with two children, enjoying a drive through Wawona in their bright yellow sedan and peering down from the crown of the State of Liberty. We see Mom and Sister marvelling at the clean restroom paper towels (a contrast from the often-grimy rotating cloth towel-on-a-roll dispensers commonly used in public restrooms at that time). We also see Son enjoying a soft drink (in a glass returnable bottle!) while Mom and Sister wait for the attendant to finish cleaning the car's windshield (Dad is presumably inside the station getting maps).

Much has changed since 1963, as even the Esso brand itself was changed to Exxon in the United States  in 1973 (although the Esso name is still used in Canada). The smiling attendant and the Happy Motoring! signs are now long gone from most Exxon stations throughout the country. But the road trip continues to be a popular travel experience, and for many people, the memories remain of a simpler, and perhaps more enjoyable era.