In 1950, Cosmopolitan magazine looked a lot different than today's Cosmopolitan, but the audience seems to have been the same then as it is now: young, single women without a lot of money. Unlike Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, which catered to women who had, or at least aspired to, charge-o-plates at Bergdorf's, Cosmopolitan was aimed at the working class woman. I already had a Harper's Bazaar from 1938 that was chock full of perfume ads. How would Cosmopolitan treat perfume twelve years later?
If my issue is any indicator, perfume was a luxury item to Cosmopolitan's readers. It was exotic, expensive, and less important than a fully stocked bar, routing Communism, or finding a husband…
Jacqueline Johnson's Classic Perfume Advertising features a collection of 370 color prints published in American and French magazines between 1920 and 1970. I’ve always admired the work of illustrators from the 1920s and ‘30s, so when I found this book on Amazon for a little under $29, I didn't think twice about ordering it. Although there are many print ad collections on the net nowadays, I prefer to browse through them in a nice, large book. I was also curious about the stories behind these ads, the people who created them, and the impact they had on the public. How did time affect universal themes in perfume advertising, like romance, sensuality, luxury, and elegance? I had high hopes for this book, and was really looking forward to it. But when my copy finally came in the mail, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.