Consumerist has a great list article with 10 ads you'd never see today. In it, you'll learn how the World Trade Centers could have been saved by asbestos, why you should wrap your children in cellophane and why doctors love Camel cigarettes. Hilarity ensues.
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I agree with you. Actually it just seems to show that these marketers and producers were more upfront about their dubious products, masking them as good when they were actually dangerous, than they are now. Now they conceal the fact that they are dangerous and just sell them - think China's tainted milk incident.
The hair on the back of my burnt-out head has finally grown in from that rear-end accident oh, back in '72.
Somebody knew these products were dangerous, whether or not that someone could profit from it was the bigger question at the time.
Another great example is tetra-ethyl lead gas additive. http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=932