Advertising in American Culture Alicia Barber, Ph.D.

1. Advertising in American Culture Alicia Barber, Ph.D.

2. Analyzing Advertisements as Cultural Sources • Purpose: What is it trying to sell/promote? • Audience: Who is the target customer? • Strategies: Text, image, message What can it tell us about American culture at the time of its production?

3. Purpose • Cultivating brand identity • Convincing consumer to switch brands • Introducing a new product • Lobbying for a political issue

4. Strategies • Does the advertisement offer a “reason why” to buy the product? • Or is it oriented more to emotional appeals? • Does the ad feature the product or does it focus on the people using it? • Does it address the reader directly with suggestions or commands? • Does the ad offer a reduced price or a premium? • Does a celebrity provide an endorsement? • Does it play on fear or anxiety or make positive appeals?

5. Nineteenth-century shop

8. 19th Century Advertisements

9. Wanamaker’s 1902 Grand Depot

10. Wanamaker’s 1903 Philadelphia Store

11. Louis Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott Building, Chicago, 1899.

12. R.H. Macy’s, 1908

13. Marshall Fields’ Tiffany dome

14. Marshall Field, pre-1900.

15. Women at Marshall Fields, Chicago, 1905

16. Christmas shoppers, a woman holding a parcel and walking past a covered store window at Marshall Field's department store on State Street, Dec. 1905

17. Looking into a Marshall Field & Co. department store window in Chicago's Loop, 1910.

19. The Rise of Mass Culture • Wave of new mass-marketed consumer goods: washing machines, automobiles, furniture, etc. • Creation of community through new shared cultural experiences: radio, movies, magazines, tourism, advertising, etc. • A new focus on the consumer. Harry Grant Dart, “Picturesque America,” 1909

20. Consumer Credit “Buy now, pay later!” • Before 1920, the average consumer could not borrow money. • Allowed consumers to pay smaller amounts over time. • Began with large items like cars, pianos, etc. • Induced a “speculative frenzy” as many bought stocks with only 10% down payment. 1924 ad for Ford Runabout with weekly purchase plan

21. 1924 Advertisement for Work Rite radios

22. July 6, 1922. J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency Ad

23. The Modern Girl “Youth demanded simple clothes instead of those fussy, elaborate styles of the 1900’s. Clothes more expressive of youth’s own slim, natural grace—clothes easier to wear in the thousand-and-one activities of modern women!” Ivory soap ad, 1929

24. “When girls started on their headlong career of swimming, golfing, riding and motoring, they were warned they would eternally ruin their complexions. But they just did not. After several years of sports and parties, their skin remains soft and fine. The modern girl still has the kind of complexion men bow to, fascinatingly fresh and smooth.” Pond’s ad from Ladies Home Journal, 1923.

26. Dr. West’s toothpaste, 1935

27. L’Aiglon, 1940s

30. Luis Sinco AP Photo/Los Angeles Times

32. Lego Ad, early 1960s

33. Volkswagen ad, 1963

34. Volkswagen ad, 1969

35. Sony Walkman ad, 1981

36. 1969

37. 1971 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eLhvsSM

38. 1976

39. 1980 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD6j_7bgrtA