“Successful Marriages Start in the Kitchen!”

“Now the new mistress of the house can go right ahead with some of those girlhood dreams- planning lovely meals for her man, preparing all sorts of interesting little dishes and safe in the knowledge that Pyrex is going to make failure-free cooking easy.

The not-so-glamorous tasks of the kitchen become fun too, with Pyrex. Just one dish for cooking, serving, and storing, and when it comes to washing up, the suds banish grease from Pyrex in the twinkling of an eye!”

Clearly this advertisement is quite old; an ad like this would never be posted today due to the rise of feminism and equality for women. Even though women were viewed as property in the 1950s, this does not make the ad any less offensive, sexist, and just downright terrible.

Persuasive Appeals

This ad is aimed at women, as Pyrex had assumed that all women love to cook and that their lives revolve around their husbands. Therefore, buying Pyrex containers would make the wife a better cook, which means she is a better wife, which means she will please her husband, which was a “persuasive” appeal. This whole ad is centered around the idea that a women’s purpose is serving and pleasing her husband.

Visual Elements

The first visual element I noticed was the fact that the woman is bending over and the man is standing over her and looking down on her.  They also show the woman in a wedding dress, cooking in an oven, while the man is wearing a tuxedo, and watching her cook. This represents the 1950s attitude that women are submissive to men, and as mentioned earlier, the idea that she is serving her husband. This is a pathos appeal, because the image depicts a happy couple, which is what any two people want in a relationship. The ad depicts Pyrex cooking containers as the key to happiness in relationships, which may have made women want to purchase them.

Writing Components

The text that follows the image is just as bad as the image itself. It states that every girls dream is preparing food for her man, which is obviously incredibly sexist. As offensive as the text is, however, Aristotle’s logos appeal is used as the glass containers positive features are brought up immediately: “makes failure free cooking easy,” “one dish for cooking, serving, storing,” and “the suds banish grease”. All of these qualities make Pyrex seem like a reliable company with good products, which ties into the ethos appeal.

Although the creators of this ad used multiple appeals and elements to target their audience and sell their product, it is still extremely offensive and appalling to see that women were viewed so poorly. Absolutely nothing about this ad was respectful nor enjoyable to look at. Luckily, ads like this nowadays are few and far between.