Today (I wrote this text on the 1st of December, 2024), while reading Taschen’s book about advertisements (“D&AD50 50 Years of Excellence in Design and Advertising and the People That Made It Happen”), I stumbled across one of the ads from 1977. Ad’s slogan was “Cold kills the old.”
The agency that prepared this ad was Saatchi & Saatchi Garland-Compton, and the client was the Health Education Council. Initially, when I saw it, I thought that it was the ad; I thought that client HEC wanted to promote exposing one’s body to cold. I was sure that this ad would encourage people to expose their bodies to frigid temperatures because one of the benefits of exposing them to cold is that not only the skin but also the brain ages slower. What was my amazement when I saw that HEC advised elderly people to “warm the bed” before getting in, wear plenty of woolen clothes at night, or move the bed away from outside walls?
I was born in 1985.
I do not know what the recommendations were in Poland in similar cases in the ’70s or ’80s. What I know is that cold kills the old, but only by empowering and strengthening the people who are exposing their bodies to coldness (e.g., by taking cold showers or wearing summer clothes in frigid temperatures – these are my ways of feeling cold to strengthen, among others, my immune system).
I have no doubts that my health (both mental and physical) has strengthened since I started taking cold showers in April 2021 and walking in summer clothes (including adammazek.com t-shirt) in the Fall/Winter season 2021/2022. I do not remember when I was last sick. For example, today, I made 11k steps wearing summer clothes while it was 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 degrees Fahrenheit). I cannot imagine cold fall and winter seasons without rucking (in total, I wore 22 kg on my back and shoulders) and exposing my body to frigid temperatures.
