We all now know that smoking isn't good for you. But in bygone days the advertisements for cigarettes was that they where beneficial to health. Here is an advert from the 1940's (courtesy of the Advertisement Archive) (Transcription below the picture) Every woman wants to look better, to feel better in the year ahead. Slenderness is the way to health. beauty and fitness. A couple of grammes of amphetamine sulphate taken daily enables you to 'slim while you do the housework - surely and safely. This magic powder does more than disperse unwanted fat it purifies and enriches the blood, it tones up the entire system and makes you feel better in health in every way. It even gives you the energy to carry on working throughout the night. So start taking amphetamines today and make sure of feeling and looking your best in 1940 I bet they were bouncing off the walls
It's only a few years ago that the British government were making speeches saying how good the Banks were for the economy and how they were to be encouraged to do whatever they wanted
Thinking about that claim I wonder what any woman who followed that advice would would feel and look like say 10, 20, 30 years later, should they live that long. Reminds me of when I first came to Australia in 1974 and worked for a few years as an inspector on the shop floor in one of the Steel Mills, quite few Aussies were in the habit taking several Bex Powders during the day, every day. What amazed me besides why anyone would want to do so, was that they never took them with water/liquid. Just Goggled Bex powders and came up with: A Bex Powder = approx 1 Gram and contains 420 mg Aspirin and 420 mg of Phenacetin. "In the 1960s, housewives routinely used Bex to get through the day. However, once it was recognised that these substances were addictive and large doses of phenacetin taken by habitual uses were resulting in widespread kidney disease, analgesics came under government regulation in the 1970s (1). Watch a Bex TV advertisement from 1965here."
The alternative to Bex was the good old Vincents APC powder. Bex also came in tablet form, can't remember about Vincents.
I have absolutely no idea why, but whenever I hear 'a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie-down" it reminds me of one of our neighbours when I was a teenager. Said neighbour was having a 'lie-down' when her hubby arrived home early. The 'lie-down' beat all world records for the high jump when he had to scarper over the side paling fence. Another neighbour was peeking through the blinds and passed on this information to my mother, both of them doubling up with laughter.
I don't think it was the ingredients as such in these things but the combination of the three. They took out one of the ingredients, not sure but I think it was the phenacetin. My brother-in-laws mother died from abusing these things and a friends mother as well. Both from kidney disease.
Have just googled Bex and learned its the Aussie answer to our long since banned A(spirin)P(henacetine)C(affeine) tablets. They were my preferred choice on the rare occasions I had a headache, but taking 2, three times daily for any length of time, no thank you. have always overdone the coffee, according to the "experts".
