Friday, June 3, 2011

“Housewife Headache”


[“Making beds, getting meals, acting as family chauffeur — having to do the same dull, tiresome work day after day — is a mild form of torture. These boring yet necessary tasks can bring on nervous tension, fatigue and what is now known as ‘housewife headache.’ For this kind of headache you need strong yet safe relief. So take Anacin®. Anacin is a special fortified formula. It gives you twice as much of the strong pain-reliever doctors recommend most — as the other leading extra strength tablet. Minutes after taking Anacin your headache goes, so do its nervous tension and fatigue. Despite its strength Anacin is safe, taken as directed. It doesn’t leave you depressed or groggy. See if you don’t feel better all over with a brighter outlook after taking 2 Anacin Tablets.” Life, December 20, 1968.]

I found this advertisement while searching for something else. It’s the first in a brief series of Life ads touting Anacin as the cure for “Housewife Headache,” and one of two that characterize housework as “a mild form of torture” — from which there’s no respite, only a tablet that offers temporary relief from pain. Note the tactful reassurance about Anacin: “It doesn’t leave you depressed or groggy.” In other words, it’s not a tranquilizer. The active ingredients if you’re wondering: aspirin and caffeine.

comments: 7

Elaine said...

I'm pretty sure a martini would better help that poor woman with her headache...but what to do about the lethal-looking spikes she has instead of eyelashes?

Michael Leddy said...

That mannequin-like appearance must make her more appealing to her tortur — I mean, her husband.

Theresa Lemieux said...

Not wrong about the torturous monotony, I tell ya.

Theresa Lemieux said...

Although it's funny how advertising found the solution to the difficulties of being a housewife after endorsing and mythologizing that lifestyle as a natural calling. See the Age of Persuasion on this one.

Anonymous said...

Anacin.
Annie's sin. Any sin.
Anacin's.
Annie's sins. An essence.
And Lex is
co-graphically
challenged.

Anonymous said...

Quite a few extra-strength headache pills contain caffeine; heck, Anacin is still around.

Mickey said...

If housework gives you a headache, then working for a living HAS to kill you!