Societal pressure on women is often a talking point.
Indeed previously on this website we’ve looked at slimming crazes dating back to the early 1900s when women worldwide were encouraged to lose weight and ‘become happy’.
Well it seems that the pressure on women to conform to a certain body type works both ways as the following set of ads from the 1980s demonstrates.
Once upon a time wate-On, an artificial weight gain product, was marketed to American women concerned with being too skinny. Shown below are a series of ads detailing the Wate-On message to gain weight, be merry and most importantly, be popular.
Needless to say I’m sure the conflicting messages about being too skinny and being too large caused many a headache for the 1980s woman.
Judging from the ads and the nutritional information put forward by weight on, you would be forgiven for thinking the product was healthy. After all, the active ingredients in the product seemed perfectly healthy
Active Ingredients: Per 2 Tablespoons (30 mL):
- Total Fat (Saturated Fat 2.5g) 15g;
- Sodium 10 mg;
- Total Carbohydrate (Sugar 2g) 5g;
- Vitamin A 2000 IU;
- Vitamin C 20 mg;
- Vitamin D 200 IU;
- Vitamin E 15 IU;
- Thiamin 0.75 mg;
- Riboflavin 0.51 mg;
- Niacin 10 mg;
- Vitamin B6 1 mg;
- Vitamin B12 3 mcg;
- Biotin 0.015 mg;
- Pantothenic Acid 5 mg;
- Iron 9 mg;
- Zinc 7 mg;
- Copper 1 mg.
You begin to encounter issues when you look at the actual ingredients making up this product. It’s a veritable who’s who of today’s current nutritional ‘bad boys’ (Vegetable oils, sugar, additives and preservatives).
Inactive Ingredients:
- Hydrogenated Stabilized Soybean Oil;
- Water;
- Sugar;
- Propylene Glycol;
- Polyoxyethylene 20 Sorbitan Monolaurate;
- Sorbitan Monostearate;
- Xanthan Gum;
- Methyl Paraben;
- Sorbic Acid;
- Artificial Flavoring;
- Propyl Paraben;
- Ferric Citrate;
- Niacinamide;
- Panthenol;
- Pyridoxine Hydrochloride;
- Riboflavin 5 Phosphate;
- Thiamin Hydrochloride;
- Calciferol;
- Vitamin A Palmitate;
- Ascorbic Acid;
- dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate;
- Biotin FFC;
- Copper Sulfate;
- Zinc Oxide;
- Artificial Color;
- Butylated Hydroxytoluene;
- Cyanocobalamin.
It’s quite a laundry list isn’t it?
Well remarkably Wate-On was a popular product in its day, having been established in the 1960s, the product lasted for several decades before falling out of favour. Remarkably the company never targeted a male audience, which as Charles Atlas had shown, was perhaps more interested in gaining weight than women.
Semantics aside, the Wate-On advertisements show just how fickle the idea of an ‘ideal’ female form actually is, something that tends to be forgotten nowadays.