Just What the Doctor Ordered : Health and Grooming in the Classic Age of Advertising

Far from today's subtly persuasive efforts, advertising once liked to point a coldly accusing finger at an easy target of our inadequacies.

Ads for personal self-improvement ranged from outright threats of impending doom to the most outrageous false claims of miracle results.

It was a world of hidden worries and quack solutions where dandruff could leave you celibate, buying the wrong toilet tissue could mean a nasty operation; it was the good old days when heroin was a cure for a tickly cough and whisky, cigarettes, chocolate and coffee all came with a doctor's recommendation.

Stretching from the 19th century to the 1970s, these ads show the hard sell at its most absurd and hilarious.

This postcard book contains 30 picture images selected from the Advertising Archives.