In both the 1960s and today there is a strong sense of sexual liberation, you can really see through their cultural expressions, such as the advertisements displayed on the right, the views that the whole of society felt towards sex. These ideas shape what you see in the advertisements. The Conceptrol Shield advertisement displays couples on the boxes staring lovingly into on another's eyes because expressing any notion of sex outside marriage, or sex outside a relationship at the very least, was craziness. Whereas the contemporary Durex condom actually displays a picture of a condom wrapper, this is because the visual of a condom, what its used for, and its association with safe sex are essentially universally known as well as the fact that now it doesn't matter who you are using the condom with, unlike the the Conceptrol Shields advertisement. It's very similar to the differences in music between the 1960s and today. In the 1960s, songs like "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks and "The Lemon Song" by Led Zeppelin, were subtle in displaying their sexual meanings by making innuendoes and insinuations without outright stating their intentions. Today, songs like "S&M" by Rihanna (in fact almost any Rihanna song) and "Climax" by Usher are pretty blatant (if you couldn't tell by their names) in their lyrical descriptions of their sexual meanings. When comparing these two advertisements, you are really comparing societal norms and what is acceptable to display in a public discourse. As mentioned in previous posts, in the 1960s there was a feeling of sexual liberation spreading about, however it was still a taboo to discuss it much in a public discourse, and today sex is just there, part of society, with more emphasize on safe sex than sexual liberation.
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