It's not just old photographs and newspaper stories that tell the story of how we lived. Often the advertisements in between can also remind us of how much society has changed.
On the 40-year-old pages of local papers are some smug-looking children drawn in comic-like form and smirking at a head lice medicine called "DDT Emulsion", which promises to kill "the tiny creatures".
So what if DDT, a powerful insecticide, was virtually banned worldwide for agricultural use in the 1960s over fears that it was destroying the environment?
Filling half of another page, the advertising men are trying to persuade the reader that a new fridge proves that "beauty is not just skin deep". The Kelvinator stands formidably next to an overdressed woman who is embracing the fridge tenderly.
Then there is the more artistic approach with a touch of landscape.
Parked in the middle of a desert, a scantily clad woman leans against a television set incongruously perched on the bonnet of a Lancer car. Buyers are promised that this is what they will get by buying the car . the television, that is.
This was an age when almost anything could be advertised in the newspaper.
A "ditch witch" heavy duty construction machine that does anything from digging to cutting to ploughing shares space with a model wearing Max Factor make-up that stays on while you "shower or swim".
What was acceptable in a UAE in 1974 looks strange and sometimes inappropriate in 2014.
Persuading customers to part with their dirhams 40 years ago reflected an era of marketing that today seems sexist, less conservative and with much looser standards.
"I really loved the old ads. They were somehow more honest in their directness and less confusing than today's ads," says Ahmed Al Ali, 72, an Emirati retired engineer from Abu Dhabi who has always read a newspaper with his morning qahwa.
"One thing that lasted to this day is that ads still have a beautiful woman posing with their products."
Mr Al Ali recalls how readers would recognise the same blonde woman in different adverts, and how she would be "Jenny" in one and "Amanda" in another.
In the 1970s, adverts in newspapers such as Al Ittihad, Gulf Monitor and Abu Dhabi News show an emphasis on machines and gadgets that are taken for granted today, such as fridges, air conditioning, washing machines and batteries, which four decades ago were the signs of progress.
Air-conditioner ads were the "coolest", promising businesses that fitting units could "help double your sales".
Customers would feel more comfortable lingering around a cool store, it was claimed, while diners would dally in your air-conditioned restaurant.
Colour-television sets were a "luxury that only the best" people could afford.
"Watch the games in colour", one advert says, referring to the Fifa World Cup in West Germany and explaining how to receive the Bahraini channel RTV, which had the rights to show them.
Arabic-language newspaper tended to give more space to car advertisements, including Datsun - "the best of what Japan makes" - along with Toyota, Lancer, Dodge and BMW.
Cigarette adverts were still permitted, with Rothmans International taking an entire page claiming to produce the "first in the world".
But the most common adverts were related to air travel, seeming to be aimed at the growing expatriate population rather than nationals.
Airlines such as Gulf Air, Air India, Iraqi Airways, British Airways, National Airlines and Swiss Air would promote themselves in the same issue of a newspaper, often just a page apart.
While Arab carriers such as Iraqi Airways would emphasise "guarantees" of reaching your destination safely, other airlines would play up the glamour angle, almost outrageously.
"I fly the easy route to Houston every day. I'm Jennifer. Fly me, fly National Airlines," says one attractive stewardess.
An Air India advert declares it to be the "airline that loves you", illustrated with a woman in traditional Indian dress who "will go all the way with you".
A Gulf Air VC10 ad lured travellers with the promise of what they might find at their destination. A woman in a bikini stands on a pile of rocks as part of Gulf Air's "golden falcon service to Beirut".
For Kuwait, the same airline shows a falconer, while a flight to Karachi has a traditionally dressed man on a horse.
Gulf Air ads also offered yet another excellent reason to try their airlines, a twin seat in economy.
Two passengers, a man in a kandura and a woman in a short floral dress, sit with an empty seat and a tray with fitted ashtrays between them.
Both models are reading newspapers, while the woman is holding a cigarette.
"Press advertisements had generally poor design values in the 1970s," says Alex Brown, chief executive of All About Brands, an Abu Dhabi creative communications agency.
"They also stood alone, promoting a single product or service as the concept of branding - or corporate identity as it was referred to in the '70s - was still in its infancy."
Advertisements were typically copy-led as opposed to image-led, Mr Brown says, "mainly due to the fact that sourcing images in the pre-digital age was both expensive and time-consuming, which meant there was greater emphasis on the quality of the written word".
An interesting example is an ad for Polaroid cameras. In the Arabic version it was a straightforward explanation of a new device that takes "coloured photos".
In English there is almost an essay on "precious moments".
"The way in which men and women were represented in the media was also quite different," says Mr Brown.
"Gender equality certainly hadn't taken root in the 1970s, and there are numerous examples of, frankly, blatant sexism.
"Men were portrayed as the family breadwinners, while women were either depicted as obedient homemakers or exploited to bring an element of glamour to a mundane product or service.
"Today, of course, we have witnessed a dramatic shift in gender positioning, with women now often depicted as strong, active and independent, while men are shown to have become increasingly vulnerable and sensitive.
"The 1970s also saw a rise in the use of celebrity endorsement to sell products, something that has survived until the modern day, with famous footballers sporting spectacular sideburns and making dubious fashion statements to encourage consumers to 'shop like their hero'."
When not posing in short dresses and beaming for the likes of Palm Island - a 100 per cent vegetable ghee that "adds flavour to any food" - while holding a roast chicken, women sit with long, painted nails and blow-dried hair at the Facit 1820 typewriter.
"The role of advertising has also changed significantly. In the 1970s, advertising was typically used to sell a particular product or service to consumers, whereas now it has a much more sophisticated and powerful role to play," says Mr Brown.
"Today companies use advertising to engage their target audience and establish trust and, with that trust comes an ability to influence their behaviour and ensure brand loyalty."
Those old advertisements also capture a simpler time, such as "the first-ever shoes exhibition" that came to town in 1974, bringing modern shoes from Europe for the "whole family" at the Sheikh Ahmed bin Hamed building, on Sheikh Zayed Road in Abu Dhabi.
For jobs wanted, often with a high school diploma as the only qualification needed, there were openings on oil rigs and construction projects.
Sometimes, companies would take out brand-protection adverts, with the official agent and distributor of a brand warning against unofficial suppliers.
"There wasn't much of a selection then, so whatever you saw in the paper or heard over the radio was taken at face value and accepted as the best thing out there," says Mr Al Ali.
"Now with so many options you don't know what you need and you don't know why you need it when you get it.
"Before it was obvious - you get a beautiful woman if you buy and drive a nice car."
rghazal@thenational.ae
