Back in the days when Marilyn Monroe was America's chief sex goddess, when such persons tended toward the big and buxom and blonde, along came blonde Swedish model Gunilla Knutson, a very worldly looking age 18, in a truly delightful TV commercial.
The ads were for Noxzema Instant Shave Cream. The ads, produced by the William Esty agency, showed the sexy Knutson urging men to "take it off...take it all off," with double meaning as obvious as a pie in your face. The commercial was camp rather than sleezy, however, and was done with a raucous rendition of the song The Stripper playing in the background.
Both male and female viewers loved the commercial, and variations of it ran through 1973. Only some members of the U.S. Congress, obviously playing to their more devout and humorless constituents, raised any objections to these commercials' sexual innuendo. (These were some of the same "leaders" who wanted to get braille copies of Playboy magazine off the shelves of the Library of Congress--until they were embarrassed by being informed by librarians that only the words were in braille.)
The comely Knutson had been Miss Sweden prior to coming to America. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in December 1970, did later ads for a skin cream product, worked for a wine business and taught gymnastics. She also published a few books about massage, beauty and health.
Knutson was last in the news when she broke a leg while skiing in the Italian Alps.
After her one iconic TV ad, one suspects that she has never, ever had to buy her own drinks.
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