this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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Vintage and Retro Ads, Promos, Fliers, Etc.

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For sharing images of vintage magazine ads, fliers, promos, etc.

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This is perfume that you can spray in anywhere:

  • Your home
  • Your clothes
  • Your ears

I wonder what is 'bend-over' mean. Is it trademark ?

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I love how the prices went up by 20% before the ad was even over.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Good catch!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Shipping cost most likely explains the extra 20-40¢

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Made from 100% pure snake oil.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Containing traces of cocaine, asbestos, radium and vengeful ghosts

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Sure, if you get a really good batch.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can see someone bending over to pray to some Hindu (?) deity in the picture.

I wonder if the meaning of this phrase changed over time, or if it was a double entendre back then already.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah it is seem a perfume sell as superstition/spiritual product.

The ads advice you to put it on money too?!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Sprinkle on them casino chips!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yeah, seem like superstition product.

Sprinkle it on money :D

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

The figure on the right is definitely spraying it on kids' clothes.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I was just uncomfortably pondering that phrase- given the context, could it imply luck in dating or hooking up? Hooking up/fish fry?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Could be related to the gambling that occurs at church fish fries

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Like bingo? Dump that Sex Panther stuff on stacks of bingo cards...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Nah like poker and blackjack. I think my old church may have even had a roulette wheel and craps tables.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

For those wondering exactly what these are, I know of them because they were still pretty popular in the 1990s among Hispanics (which my family is). They're basically essential oil perfumes that have supernatural aromatherapy beliefs attached to them. Basically the thought was the scent "attracted" or "emitted" some characteristic, such as attracting luck, or warding off evil. The ingredients were literally just alcohol with oils mixed into them you'd spray or dab on for the pricier stuff, or alcohol with synthetic aromas (and other more questionable ingredients) in the very cheap stuff.

That's also why they have the weird names - to make them seem more foreign in this case but to say what they supposedly do. Bend-Over is known as "El Emperador" or "Reino" (The Emperor or Reign) in Spanish, implying you get the aura or a commanding figure. They chose Bend-Over because just people didn't know the word "capitulate". Scrub's ad description doesn't quite match its name but in other languages it translates basically the same and was supposedly used to wash off "the evil eye" or people's bad vibes / jealousy they'd cast onto you (hence the picture of washing clothes with it).

Has No-Harra is the funniest misinterpretion they did - can't tell if they mixed three languages or two. Harra means "harm", but could also be mistranslated "haras" in Spanish which means "to do", so "No haras" which means "you shall not do" - and that scent was supposed to be to prevent harm being brought to you, like curses and hexes. That one probably went through a game of telephone since "preventing misfortune" probably got translated to "having fortune" would be my guess.

But yeah, spiritual / supernatural aromatherapy has historically been a thing in multiple cultures. If you're Catholic you might have even seen some sort of scent magic still used - the burning of incense at church. Just thought I'd share some of the history and culture behind these things.

Edit: Tl;Dr + extra context: these are "scent magic" perfumes taken from a poor misinterpretation of other cultures and religions that popped off during the age of occultism in the Victoria era

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Thank you for the context.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Where did you find this outrageous ad? It's high res enough to see every detail, I'm impressed