Vintage Health-tex Love Part 2

In my last post I shared with you some images of fabulous vintage children's clothing by Health-tex, historically one of the most well known children's play wear companies.

It is not suprising that such a popular, high quality and stylish brand should also have produced some amazing advertisements. In 1966, the company began a long running and hugely successful ad campaign that featured the work of children's book artist, Susan Perl. Known as "The Handy Answers to Hard Questions Asked by Children in the Health-Tex Years", the campaign featured print ads portraying Perl's illustrations of children dressed in colorful Health-tex clothing along with answers to some of the typical questions asked by preschool aged children. Some of my favorites are "Are there daddy ladybugs or are they all ladies?" and "Why aren't we all the same color?". I just love the cute artwork, the clothing styles (to think that you could just go out and purchase those outfits!) and the way that the "hard questions" truly reflect the precious musings of our little ones.

This ad campaign was so popular that it ran until the early 80s. According to the company, every time a new ad appeared, a large number of parents and teachers would contact them for reprints. I'm sure I would have been doing the same!

If you would like to score yourself some of the original vintage ads (imagine them framed and hanging on a wall in a series), they are quite accessible today. I searched ebay and found that there are at least a dozen available right now from various sellers. Please click on the images here to be taken directly to the shops! Additionally, in 1975, the book "How Come... Easy Answers to Hard Questions" was published by Joyce Richards and illustrated by Susan Perl. It features images and text based on the ads. In 1977, another book was published, entitled "More Easy Answers". I managed to find a copy of this on amazon and am looking forward to receiving it!

Jeannie at Sweet Shop Vintage