Liberty Leading the People for Yardley of London, 1970

This Yardley of London ad from May 1970 really caught my eye, as it seems quite a deviation from their other ads of the time. I think it was trying to be a more ‘women’s lib’ (as it was termed in 1970) approach.  The Freedom For Your Skin ad is for Yardley’s Next to Nothing skin care line of Skin Clean, Skin Fresh, and Skin Quench. Apparently most women were slaves to skin ritual, and these products were all about setting you free.

The ad features a model in a rather militant pose reenacting the painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix. The woman in the original painting personifies the concept and the goddess of Liberty leading the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket in the other. The Yardley model has the French flag in one hand, but thankfully no musket in the other. I think they were wise to leave the gun and dead bodies out of the skin care ad, but that’s just me. 🙂

~Marilyn