Vintage newspaper ad shows people congratulating the wealthy for flying abroad

The world has come a long way in terms of technological advancements and lifestyle, in general. What used to be a common practice in the 70s and 80s is now considered amusing. Recently, a vintage newspaper ad has been making rounds on the internet for reasons that seem hilarious to the current generation. Backpacking Daku - who goes by @outofofficedaku on X, shared the post on April 9 and captioned it, "In the 70s, ads were put in newspapers congratulating Indians who would be traveling abroad," and it has garnered over 170K views in just a couple of days.

The image shows the ad section of a newspaper from September 28, 1979, where one particular ad post stands out from others. It was a picture of an Indian businessman named Brahmavar Tenkumane Prahillada Shetty, who was the Director of Kohinoor Rolling Shutters and Engineering Works company in Bangalore, India. It was announced that the person was visiting the UK, West Germany, Switzerland and several other European countries as part of their business tour.

Below is a list of people who were possibly the businessman's friends and family "wishing him success" on their overseas trip. This congratulatory ad post titled, "Going abroad" caught the internet's attention and many were amused by this. Some even reasoned why people back then had this practice of congratulating someone traveling abroad.

"We have indeed come a long way in the last half a century," commented @mrmakhal. "You have no idea how tough it was to get a telephone, let alone a passport. Getting a ticket and visa to go abroad was like winning the Olympics," wrote @sjlazars. "He is a man on a mission, pitching for his own venture products and presenting peer industry products as well. So maybe everyone is showing gratitude. Now LinkedIn is the place for such posts," commented @mangeshkawade3. "It was a very, very big deal. When my grandparents used to travel back in the '70s, the entire extended family (I mean 30+ people) came to the airport, with food, etc., had a nice picnic, and waited there for hours till the plane took off," wrote @skangle.

Speaking of vintage ads, one cannot ignore how the ads from the mid-20th century propelled the idea of gender roles in the most sexist way. However, visual artist Eli Rezkallah decided to set them right by reversing the gender roles in the ads after a random realization one Thanksgiving.

"I overheard my uncles talk about how women are better off cooking, taking care of the kitchen, and fulfilling 'their womanly duties.' Although I know that not all men think that way I was surprised to learn that some still do, so I went on to imagine a parallel universe, where roles are inverted and men are given a taste of their own sexist poison," Rezkallah told Plastik Studios who teamed up with him to recreate those sexist ads in 2018. Titled, "In a parallel universe," Rezkallah created several fictional pictures by editing vintage ads with reversed gender roles in a humorous attempt.