Dacron’s 1970s Mr Leggs slack ad campaigns used humor and appeasement to appeal to their targeted audience and potential customers to increase profits. By depicting women in such a degrading way, they accurately depict sexism in the 1970s.
Dacron advertised a rug made from a poached animal’s skin with a woman’s head attached to it while a man stands proudly, one leg propped on the head of the woman and the other on the rug, flaunting his Mr Leggs slacks. This Mr Leggs print advertisement suggests that Dacron is not only trying to increase profit sales of their slack pants but also advocating the oppression of women in America. To capture the attention of the 1970s man, Dacron used emotional appeal and repetition. The women’s rights movement was underway during the decade when these ads were published, causing men to feel inferior and that they were losing control over women. These ads use emotional appeal to give men back the power they feel women have taken from them. Repeating the implied power that Mr Leggs slacks have over women illustrates the advertising technique of repetition.
Even though the Mr. Leggs Slacks advertisement by Dacron may appear very prejudiced and discriminatory today, sexism is still very prevalent in ads. Dacron’s advertisement captured the attention of egotistic men in the 1970s, but today it is a testament to women’s progress in society. The logical strategy of emotional appeal combined with the advertising technique repetition of Danon’s advertisement made the 1970s consumer feel a parallel between what was happening to him in his own home and social life and what was happening to the nation as a whole.
