Advertising and the Twentieth Century

In a sense this was advertising himself. In 3200 B. C. , papyrus appears in ancient Egypt. This paper like material made it possible for posters and sale messages to be written for the sale of goods. In 1 00 BC, political posters and campaign advertising became popular including negative ads in Roman culture. The first movable type print system was invented in 1 040 A. D. This system invention helped create fonts typography. Four hundred years later the movable printing press is created by the German printer Johannes Gutenberg; thus, making mass production Of the written word and advertising possible.
And nil 647, the first newspaper ad tries to sell the book “The Divine Right of Church Government”. The first billboard was introduced in New York City in an 1 835 advertisement for the circus. Thousands of years of advancements helped pave the road to the explosion of the advertising world that would occur in the next century and change America forever. Beginning of a new era. The 1 ass’s saw industrialism and consumerism come together to form an American culture of consumption.
Advertising was a very persuasive technique for promoting this new and vibrant consumer culture. 1 Advertising n the early sass was simply placing announcements in newspapers and magazines. As mediums changed and avenues for reaching the public expanded, advertisements quickly appeared every. N. ‘here. With this much advertising bombarding the public and persuading them to validate their self- worth by the products they purchase; it became embedded in people’s daily lives; as a result, classes and social status were being clearly marked as the “haves” and “have nose”. Displays of this newly acquired wealth were seen all over America, especially in urban areas, where most of the rich hung out ND tried to outdo one another with displays of their wealth. Although the rich were targeted in these advertisements, an ever-increasing middle-class America had begun to buy machine made goods due to an increase of disposable income that past generations did not have. As America changed from a country of small towns into a country of busy cities, advertising played a key role in the ideology of Americans.

The idea of convenience was a major selling point in one’s life whether it be in the home, leisure, or personal grooming. The sass’s America was rapidly changing into a modernization society. Some examples re: rapid expansion due to railroads, banking infrastructure that made the mass consumer marketplace possible, and more Americans now lived and worked in cities; undoubtedly, forcing them to quickly evolve in this ever changing social and economic environment. With this changing America, advertisers had three major points to contend with.
First, advertisers needed to find some kind of meaning in this ever changing and complex bureaucratic world. 3 Modern comforts and lifestyles were drastically different than what previously was a major part of life’s basic needs such as: food, clothing, and tools. People needed to find new meaning to this mechanized routine they lived. Advertisers were there to present the masses with products and consumer goods that would have significant meaning in their lives, no matter how fleeting. Second, advertisers had to give so-called “solutions” to many of these new problems that modern life proposed.
This faster pace of life seemed to be very frustrating consequently, advertisers sought to ease the psychological pressures by helping people believe that the goods they were purchasing for the latest and most progressive product available would help them everyday n the hustle and bustle of modern life. As a result, this changed as needs and products changed. A family was provided simple information, often visually, on how the item would help fix problems of modern day life. Finally, advertisers helped create a new standard of conduct.
Industrialization, city living, and an ever-growing move toward bureaucratic hierarchy making social interaction more complex. 4 Whether standard of conduct, fashion, novel technologies, or fads, for most of Americans these were found through national advertising. The degree of how much advertising expanded in the sass can be seen in the numbers. Total advertising volume in the United States increased approximately from 206 million in 1 900 to about 682 million minion and then reached 1,409 million by 1919. 5 By looking at these numbers it is easy to see how rapid expansion of national advertising flourished during this decade.
Another key area advertisers targeted was American women. Advertisers saw that magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, and Saturday Evening post were the best way to reach the urban middle-class, and help them to understand and cope with the complexity of modern life through their different products and goods. Rodents such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Gillette razors, Ford cars, and Wriggles gum started advertising heavily during this time. Advertising in the Great War In April 191 7, America entered World War l. At this time advertising was not a new thing in America, but the message had to change.
Instead of advertisers trying to sell products they had to try to sell a war that America had been neutral on for quite some time. Eight days after the war started Pres. Wilson formed The Committee on Public Information. Pres. Wilson appointed George Creel, a muckraker from Kansas City and Denver, to head he committee. 6 Pres. Wilson believed that this committee was essential to persuade American citizens to support the war. The ICP embroiled approximately 1 50,000 Americans, and it is estimated that the ICP produced 700 poster designs, 122 bus and trolley cards, 31 0 advertising illustrations, and 287 cartoons during its existence. These ads helped the nation come together with a sense of nationalism helping to promote volunteerism and donations. These artists repeatedly tugged at American’s sense of duty, patriotism, and humanitarianism. The Roaring Twenty During World War l, Americas were asked by the government to ration their consumption of fuel and food and to sacrifice most everything for the good of the war effort. When the war ended, advertisers had the chance to shine again. In the past decade, Americans could define themselves in such ways as, race, ethnicity, religion and politics.
Americans had begun to define themselves with houses, cars, clothes, and other products and services they bought. In the 192(Yes, most Americans had more money than in the previous decade. Also, most had a belief that more material goods represented more success and modern advertising fueled this concept more than ever. With the use of billboards, newspapers, magazines and radio commercials, advertisers flooded the market with the need to purchase their products, saying it could change peoples lives by enhancing their health, safety, beauty, and daresay their entire being.
Advertisers were unscrupulous at the time. Some advertisements would play on the psychological needs and fears in people; such as telling somebody that using a certain soup showed more motherly love than another, or that a toothpaste, detergent or soap bought from the impetigo could harm you or your family. One of the most successful ways advertisers marketed products was the appeal to modernity. Modernity equaled progress and in turn was seen as automatically desirable. Companies, such as the Campbell Soup Co. Convinced women to try condensed soup because the can was easy to open and more importantly the “modern way ‘ of making soup. Other advertisers would prey on the fears of some as if that looking old-fashioned could actually affect one’s personal life by possibly losing a mate to losing a job to losing one’s self-respect. On the there hand, advertisers use anti-modern ads to people that experienced anxiety due to the fast-paced, mass consumption, forward technology, and corruption of long-standing traditional values. Post Bran Flakes, for example, showed a frustrated businessman scurrying to work.
The ad wanted to convey that eating their cereal would promote good health and calming despite living in the modern world. Ad agencies in the 1 ass’s consisted mostly of college graduates with degrees in advertising and business. They had been trained to use market research and learned how to track consumer response o certain products and ads through statistics, surveys, and other analytical methods; thus making advertising almost a science in itself. The Great Depression years The sass’s, Jazz Age, The Roaring ass’s were years of advertising decadence.
The decade even adopted a word to describe its approach to selling called “Ballyhoo”; a term used in the 19th century that meant to exaggerate blatantly, to get attention in anyway possible. 8 By 1929 advertising revenues peaked at 53. 4 billion dollars. Inn Ethel 9205, advertisers hardest thing to do was the show people how to spend their money. For the most part, the public accepted this laissez-fairer; the economy was strong and the government complacent. After the Great Crash of 1 929, everything changed in an instance. Advertisers were in a dilemma.
Should they go about business as usual or advertise about the crisis taking place. Even though advertising didn’t talk about the depression directly, advertising did change. Advertising remained for the most part bright and cheery. Ads were more geared towards the value products and services rather than the needs and need not’s of the gluttonous sass’s consumer. While employment was so high and finances, for many, so low, the publics distrust of advertising grew. As a result organizations like Consumer Union and Consumer Research grew and with their success government took notice.
They responded with the Pure Food, Drug, and Committee of 1938, The Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange, along with U. S. Post Office and Internal Revenue Service began to increase their supervisory and regulatory controls over advertising. 10 The good fight for the Good War With the advertising industry still on the defense against consumer assessment, America joining the war became a perfect time to repair their image and help the war effort at the same time. Advertisers were very concerned about their future.
The industry was mainly concerned that criticism could crippled their credibility and lead to legislation that would tax and regulate its content. At the time, Pres. Roosevelt was very disenchanted with advertising and believed it was obsolete; likewise, he believed that advertising costs should no longer be a tax-deductible business expense. In November 1941, just months before the Pearl Harbor invasion, the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies met to see what could be done.
The majority of the industry believed it would be best to “run ads explaining the economic value of advertising in creating jobs, wealth and low prices. “1 1 At this meeting was a man with the different vision. James Webb Young thought advertising was needed to promote business, yet he also believed that was just one component of it. Young proposed public-service advertising to help their tarnished image. “It ought to be used for open propaganda in international elation’s, to create understanding and reduce friction. It ought to be used to wipe out such diseases of ignorance as childbed fever.
It ought to do the nutritional job this country needs to have done. It ought to be the servant of music, of art, of literature and of all the forces of righteousness, even more than it is. When will we stop fighting over just the existing business and go back to selling advertising? When will we sell it into these new levels Of usefulness, this larger stature? ,” he asked. 1 1 With this vision the Ad Council was conceived. Lining the War Advertising Counsel officially was created to verse advertising for the war effort.
Council wanted ads to encourage the public to organize campaigns for military, enlist in the service, buy war bonds, salvaging fat, and women to the work force. These ads had a significant contribution, especially when it came to women working. With so many men overseas, woman had to work to keep the war machine going. At the end of the war, women were expected to return home, yet that was not the case for most. This would be the beginning of the workingwoman era. The 2nd Half In the sass, after the war was over and the troops were home, the economy started to stabilize.