I guess “hourglass packaging design week” is now done, but while searching for small waisted cereal boxes, I happened upon this television commercial for a dietetic breakfast cereal that I had never heard of: Post Size 8.
From the archives of the Benton & Bowles advertising agency, this commercial has been taken by many people as proof that this product was on the market in 1969.
I’m not so sure that’s true. To me, it looks more like a sketch for a proposed ad campaign. And finding no evidence anywhere else of this product’s supposed existence—no published magazine ads—no cylindrical “Size 8” cereal boxes coming up for sale on eBay—I doubt that this product ever actually made it onto supermarket shelves.
Interesting that they would contemplate this specific dress size as the brand name for their cereal. I don’t know dress sizes from Adam, but my sense from the context is that for a woman to be a size 8 was apparently highly desirable, at least in 1969.
According to a 2003 press release, however, from Fitnesse (another, more recent diet cereal brand): “Women today are not striving to become the size 8 that is traditionally every woman’s ideal. More than 61 per cent of women said they would be happy to get down to anything between a size 12 to 14 – the perfect size for them!”
Note: soundtrack for the commercial is an instrumental version of Felice & Boudleaux Bryant’s 1958 song, “All I have to do is dream.”
The Pucci style pattern and spare 1960s graphics of the proposed package design is an interesting glimpse into one ad agency’s view of gender branding —(i.e.: fashion-conscious female consumers want decorative designer packs.) See also: I Love You Women’s Designer Packs!
(The General Foods trademark document, after the fold…)
Most women back then wanted to be “a perfect size 10”, so promoting a size 8 as the ideal was like the insane “size 0” and even more insane “size 00” that are promoted today.
Size 8 isn’t even listed on vintage sewing patterns of that era. Patterns for women start at 10. Anything smaller would be for teens, juniors, or children. According to a 1968 sewing pattern in my collection, a size *10* was for a woman who measured 31-24-33. The difference between sizes 10 & 12 was 1 inch. Therefore, a “size 8” would have been for a woman measuring 30-23-32.
Remember also, teens and women wore very strong girdles, to achieve those proportions. Today’s clothing proportions are very different, because people are significantly taller and broader, and almost nobody wears girdles any more.