We begin a short series on the use of spanking in advertising with this flour ad, dating we believe from 1937 - certainly the price of 24 lbs. of flour has never been as low as $0.55 in our lifetime. And we'd have to agree that any woman who pays too much for flour should indeed be spanked. But the real point is the persistent use of spanking images by advertising men throughout the years: ad men have realized that nothing grabs the attention like a man spanking a woman, and if there are any sexy implications (not so much in this case), so much the better to get potential customers to pay attention to the product.
Three other examples of spanking in advertising may be found here, here, and here.
