In the 1970s, Dacron ran a print ad campaign for its Mr Leggs Slacks brand that was openly hostile toward women. These weren’t subtle or borderline — they were deliberately provocative, designed to appeal to men who felt threatened by the growing women’s rights movement of the decade. The ads used degrading imagery and repeated messaging to sell pants by selling the idea that men could dominate women.
One of the most striking images in the campaign shows a man standing confidently with one foot propped on a woman’s head and the other on a rug made from what appears to be a poached animal’s skin — but with a woman’s head attached to it. The man is dressed in Mr Leggs slacks and poses with visible pride. The ad treats the woman literally as a trophy on the floor. The copy reinforced this framing, positioning the slacks as a symbol of male power and control.
Dacron’s strategy leaned heavily on emotional appeal. The women’s liberation movement was gaining real traction throughout the 1970s, and many men felt their social authority was slipping. These ads directly fed that anxiety. By showing men in positions of dominance over women, the campaign offered a kind of fantasy reassurance — buy these slacks, reclaim your power. It was a calculated marketing move that tied a clothing product to deeply held social fears and resentments.
Repetition was another key tool. Across multiple ads in the Mr Leggs campaign, the same theme returned: a man standing over, above, or controlling a woman. This wasn’t accidental. Repeating the same implied power dynamic across different ads reinforced the brand’s message and made it stick. The goal was to create a consistent association between Mr Leggs Slacks and male dominance in the minds of their target consumer.
What made these ads particularly effective in their time was how closely they mirrored the social tensions men were experiencing at home and in public life. The shift in gender roles during the 1970s was real and visible — in workplaces, households, and politics. Dacron’s ads tapped into that specific moment, making the consumer feel seen and validated. The product became secondary to the statement the ads were making about gender. These Mr Leggs print ads are a direct, documented record of how mainstream advertising in the 1970s reflected and reinforced sexism in American culture.
