THE EROTIC HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

In the supposedly prudish late–19th century, tobacco products were advertised with posters showing a variety of buxom, practically (or entirely) topless women. They were invariably draped in toga-like robes and adopted pseudo-Grecian poses. In the 1930s, ads for a Midwestern varnish company used completely naked models; as they were used in trade magazines with an almost entirely male readership, it was considered unlikely that any woman would ever see them. Reichert, a University of Alabama advertising professor, unearthed these tidbits and others in the course of researching this entertaining and fairly comprehensive history of the use of sex in American advertising over the past 150 years. At first, this research may seem unnecessary, since the sex and advertising are so inextricably intertwined. Yet Reichert plots a telling time line, from the late–19th-century petticoat-wearing women coyly exposing themselves on beer tavern walls to the double entendres of 1960s magazine ads and the lasciviously photographed nudes plastered throughout today's fashion glossies. Although Reichert doesn't delve fully into the social ramifications of the constant rise of and backlash against overt sexuality in advertising or how the ads are targeted differently at men and women, he provides a fun, accessible survey of a subject everyone's familiar with. Photos. Agent, Edward Knappman. (Mar.)