Most controversial U.S. brassiere ad.
Today we tend to take the brassiere in our stride. Some unhappy folk are still nervous about it
and their unease
gives scope for simple-minded comedy in West-End theatre and elsewhere. The most
controversial bra ad in
America was that of the early fifties - those unpermissive times when the jaunty slogan "I
Dreamed I Stopped
Traffic in My Maidenform Bra" was coined. The situations varied but the girl was always
dressed the same: she
wore only a brassiere above the waist and wandered around with a vacant look among
normally dressed people.
The idea was that the undressed state was permissible as the girl was only dreaming.
Psychologists debated the
implications of the ad and what its impact on women would be. Moralists, as ever, fulminated.