While it's easy to claim the 1970s was a "different time" — which it was — it was also smack dab in the middle of the women's liberation movement. More women than ever were going into the workforce, birth control pills had been on the market for just over a decade, and feminist Gloria Steinem was a household name. But despite this, Geritol dropped a television commercial with a tagline that didn't go over well.
On February 5, 1973, Time magazine wrote about Geritol: "Though the FTC has received some complaints about the more recent ads as well ... they have drawn spirited criticism from women. In one commercial a husband, after reciting his attractive spouse's achievements, intones: 'My wife. I think I'll keep her.' The Williams Co. might be well advised to note that the judge, prosecutor, and FTC lawyer in last week's action were all women."
Geritol was also primarily marketed to older people. Its TV ads appeared during "The Lawrence Welk Show," "Hee Haw," and "Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour," as well as a handful of others. Marketers have long relied on the belief that you can slip things past the elderly and sell them anything (via AdSpeed). Although this isn't true of all older people, for some, especially those with age-related cognitive decline, products and services with outrageous claims can be an easy sell — one of the reasons why the FTC had to step in and sue the manufacturers of Geritol.
