Flashback

In 1973, the United States Navy was in the business of making cartoons, namely The Return of Count Spirochete. The short film starring a vampire named after the bacterium that causes syphilis was meant to scare sailors out of sleeping around.

The 20-minute spot starts with Count Spirochete winning the award for "Communicable Disease of the Year." The cartoon for adult men then goes on to explore VD's historical background, symptoms, and dangers. Coded warnings include: "For the germs to spread from one person to the other there must be an unbroken, moist, intimate skin-to-skin contact." But soon the PSA doesn't hold back, illustrating a man's penis on fire, with puss and other disgusting cartoon representations of an STD's symptoms.

With his vaguely Russian accent, Counter Spirochete adds a taste of communist danger and a hint of Rocky and Bullwinkle. You can buy a copy of the VHS from the Pentagon Channel archives, where it was recently dug up, or you can simply watch the YouTube clip above. Enjoy!

Last night's Mad Men was all about rejection, so let's talk about one of the less-obvious rejects: Peggy and Don's push for a new big idea on an old product, Pond's Cold Cream.

Old man and copywriting relic Freddy Rumsen says, in the episode two weeks ago, tell women there are engagement rings at the bottom of Pond's Cold Cream jars, and they will come with hopes, mirrors, and money in handbags. Peggy's insulted for her and embarrassed for him, and suggests they should focus on the indulgence of using the cream.

This week Sterling Cooper Draper Price brought in Dr. "It's a Woman" Miller from market research to settle the midcentury marriage-vs.-indulgence debate. Research says? Women just want to get married.

We don't know what idea will win out on Mad Men, but women gush about getting married in this Pond's Cold Cream commercial from 1969 (albeit Australia). Maybe Freddy Rumsen is back in the game? For now.

Watch it below

A few pages of The Art of Marriage: A Scientific Treatise, a 1926 sex manual for the young, newlywed, and clueless, were dug up today. In order to buy the book, people had to sign the agreement below, certifying they were "a married person . . . desirous of studying the subject of marriage."

Once readers were married, author Hayden J.F. spouted off his opinions masked as facts and advice. He tackles frigidity below.

If you try to read between the lines, this ad for a girls'-only hotel for "women who know" seems like it's promoting a spot for secret lesbian liaisons. Although, I could see the appeal to a place like this for a woman traveling alone. Plus, it's cheap!

Source

May is prom month, and while I'm grateful I don't have to worry about finding a date I'm nostalgic for the time that I did. So whether you went to prom last week or last decade (and especially if it's been longer), we want see your prom-night photos.

I don't care if they're funny, beautiful, artsy, or embarrassing (preferred), add them to our Prom Night group. Together we just might make the greatest prom album ever.

Source: Flickr User Evil Erin

Women in the 1950s partied like proper ladies, while today's female drinkers are boozy sluts — at least, that's the conclusion reached by this ridiculous story in the Times UK. The comparison is based solely on a photo of "girls' day out" published in Picture Post magazine in the mid '50s versus a massive generalization about modern women:

They dressed demurely in calf-length dresses and hats and struggled to hold down their skirts on the roller coaster ride.

Fast forward to 2010. A girls’ night out ends not in giggles and cheery partings but in a drunken heap on a pavement or slumped against the window of a fast-food restaurant.

Wow, way to stereotype! Sure, plenty of modern women have gotten drunk and gone out for late-night burgers; I'm sure we can even find photographic proof. But so have many modern men. And I'm sure men were drinking their fair share in 1950s Britain, when women were allowed this "once-a-year" treat.

So how else were the ladies of the 1950s more civilized, according to the Times? Keep reading.