An old advertisement preserves a version of the future someone hoped you would purchase.

Old advertising is a record of hopes rather than products. It shows what a company believed people wanted to become, which kitchen, which body, which kind of family, and it aimed at a future the buyer was invited to purchase their way into. The goods are gone and the aspiration is preserved, which makes advertising unexpectedly good evidence about a period.

Look at what current advertising is selling you a future version of yourself for. The exercise is more revealing than it sounds and it takes about ten minutes. Recognising the shape of the offer makes it much easier to decline.