Among my mom’s things was this Illinois Bell Telephone Company promotional advertisement featuring the Dionne Quintuplets. At first I thought, aw, cute! but then I read about their lives and how so many companies were making money off the five sisters. How their lives were never normal. They were removed from their family and made wards of the Crown, allegedly to ensure their survival and protect them from promoters (via Wikipedia). While in the custody of the Crown they were often on display to an average 3000 people per day; constantly tested, studied and examined; and had little interaction with their biological family until their return to their family in 1942 where they claimed they were physically and sexually abused by their parents.

This advertisement plays on fears of not having a telephone, or not using it in a crisis. Because of the telephone, the babies were saved.