Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Macho Cold Remedy

From a 1970s Popular Mechanics -- The "Macho" Cold Remedy!

Sadly, this "cold remedy" doesn't involve passing out at the dinner table and falling into the throes of a psychedelic nightmare where my nose begins to melt. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. It's just not what THIS ad is for.

From a time in our history where our idea of "Macho" was embodied by the Village People (as opposed to macho, unquoted, which was embodied by the Marlboro Man who also graced these old magazines), these Working Man's Body Vests were the pinnacle of keeping everything but your head, arms, hands, hips, legs, feet, and neck toasty-warm. The kind of thing that looked like a life preserver to the 1950s would, a short time later, be considered manly enough to be worn, unironically, by ambiguously gay lumberjacks flashing a "F You" sign to the Brits in the audience. Oh, "Two" you say? "Protection the active outdoor man needs," "Whether you work hard or play hard," -- it's sounding more flamboyant as we go. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. It's just not what THIS ad is for. Popular Mechanics was a Men's Magazine without the wink-wink-nudge-nudge misogyny of its naughier cousins. Me, I'm from a more cynical, sexually-enlightened time, where this sort of display of raw masculinity is suspect. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

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