We'll Buy Nearly Anything From a Woman in a Red Dress

The story of advertising's most sensuous icon

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Marketers like to talk about stuff that’s “disruptive.” And when it comes to advertising—actually, when it comes to pop culture in general—few things are quite as disruptive as a woman in a red dress. 

A popular cosmetics brand in the postwar years, DuBarry

skillfully correlated its red lipstick shade with a red dress,

which in this 1962 ad captures all the excitement of a night

out. “She’s looking fashionable and sophisticated, and

pleasing her husband, which was culturally appropriate to

the time,” Darroch said.

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