Advertisements
in the early 1900’s, late 1800s were more simplistic and straightforward than
they are in today’s world. Today, we have Sasquatches getting fooled then going
berserk; talking babies are promoting stock trading and buying; and we have men
dressing in outfits made of Doritos. All of this for the simple purpose of
getting a company’s name or a company’s brand out in the public. When
advertisements first came out, they were more straightforward and
informational. They usually consisted of a large paragraph with a coinciding
picture to accompany it. They were there simply to let the public know that
there is a problem to fix their problem or aid them in any way. Nowadays,
advertisements are more visual and sexual, in a sense. Women are wearing more
provocative clothing; men are doing unconventional things in advertisements,
and much else. There were rules and standards in the early days of advertising.
They had the same idea in mind but there was just simply a different way of
doing it.
Women
nowadays have to appeal to men in a sexual, visual way or they must appeal to
their own gender through “acting sexy” and “being independent”. Women have much
more to live up to nowadays because it seems that to be the “ideal woman”, you
must be in incredible shape and be beautiful. The standards for outer beauty
have gotten higher while the standards for common decency have decreased.
People who are prone to advertising have much more to live up to, both men and
women, because the people creating advertising create a high standard for outer
beauty or any other subliminal message they are trying to convey to you.
Advertisements have gotten more complex and subtle than advertisements in the
early 20th century.
While
rifling through those massive encyclopedias of advertisements and magazine
articles, it made me realize how much advertising has changed. Advertising had
to change along with technology, but I did not even realize how much the
substance of advertisements have changed. They were artistic and hand-written/drawn;
they had information to detail the product; and lastly, they had a picture to
correspond with the advertisement. They were straightforward and honest and if
people did not like it, then they didn’t buy it; it was as simple as that.
Nowadays, every five minutes of a television program leads to several minutes
of advertising that is forced upon us. The main theme is that advertising has
changed drastically since the early days of advertising. To some it may be bad,
to others it may be good. However, advertising has changed and it is only bound
to change even more as it continues to progress.
http://voices.yahoo.com/advertising-has-changed-over-time-1981023.html?cat=52
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYour examples of modern day advertising made me laugh, it is funny to think about the Jack Link's commercials and the Dorito's commercials as well. I take this as the downfall of intellectuality in 'Merica. You mention the contrast between modern and early advertising in America, and how before hand it was more straightforward back then. I however, think that it is more straightforward today. For example, the Dolce and Gabana advertisement doesn't beat around the bush, it's pretty much a precursor to a 5-sum. There aren't any lengthy descriptions about the products or any testimonials needed, we can imply that if you associate yourself with this brand, then you too can participate and highly taboo sexual acts.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with you that advertising has changed with technology. I like what you said about the ads on television, and how it has changed throughout the span of advertising. Now it seems that everything is produced as inexpensively as possible, with fast talkers and shoddy products. I also agree with you about the catalogs we searched through, it is pretty fascinating to look at the amount of detail and time that had to go into producing those advertisements.
I agree. Advertising had to change with innovation of technology. I think advertising had to change with the speed of America. People reading a magazine now would not want to take time to read a lengthy advertisement because they're not only reading the magazine, they're doing homework and catching up on their favorite television show. It just does not fit in with today. I know in my personal opinion I would not want to spend my leisure time looking at page-length advertisements detailing a made-up character.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, I feel that these characters in these advertisements were the first forms of "sitcom" characters. I know that it is a stretch, but people would read magazines and see stories of the same characters over and over again. People clung to these characters and based their lives off of these people, like young kids want to be like characters in TV shows.
I think the biggest thing that has changed since the early days of advertising is the way that we are. In today's world, we have experienced the full integration of Internet and television into our lives, not to mention smartphones. As a society we no longer have time to read those long winded testimonials that used to litter the magazines of old. We are a rapid fire, here and now culture that wants things that are visually stimulating and easy to process. Images over text, color over black & white, and fast paced over slow paced.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I think that you were spot on with talking about women being used as sex symbols. This is something that is absolutely not new, although it is easy to think of it that way. Women in advertisements of 60 years ago appear to be dressed extremely conservatively to our eyes, but what they are wearing could sometimes be considered blasphemous for the day. Nevertheless, something that has always been true is that sex sells. It always has, it always will.
I agree with Todd in the fact that no one in present day has the time or attention span to look at an advertisement that will take more than 2 minutes to read. Looking at our forms of advertisements as compared to back then, I agree are drastically different. Today advertisers try and come up with the most crazy ways of trying to get their product stuck in your head so that you will eventually buy it.
ReplyDeleteI however think that this approach of new advertisement is not necessarily a good thing. The reason being because with all this effort to make the advertisement as memorable as possible tends to leave out important facts about the products, and can at times lie and give you false information. So although advertisment is very showy and fun to watch now a days, it in my opinion can potentially become a bad thing as well.
@Eric, Yeah I agree advertising is certainly deceptive these days. I think that's part of our own fault though because of that short attention span mentioned by @Todd. It's tough to really go in depth with a product if you know you only have a few seconds before something else will grab your viewers attention. Actually, you have to do something crazy to even grab their attention a lot of the time.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do think certain tactics of advertising carry over into our society today. There is still use brand appeal to give the purchaser a feeling of status. Scare tactics are used in some cases. There remains the principle of creating a 'need' for the consumer, which is especially prevalent in the sexual ads. Ya know like, 'You HAVE to buy our product if you want to be as sexy as that person and get the kind of woman he can get.'
I agree with you about how advertising has become divergent of the actual product a company sells. Like you stated, what exactly does Sasquatch have to do with beef jerky? Nothing; but it gets people talking about the commercial and brand (Jack Links). The same thing can be said about sexuality. What does the Dolce & Gabbana ad actually advertise? It looks like it'd be something wildly inappropriate if I wasn't familiar with the brand.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe only straight forward advertisement I can remember for the past few years would be the Super Bowl commercial for Miller High Life where it's just a second long and the guy yells "High Life!" That's probably the only straight forward ad I can think of that has stuck with me. The old ad of the woman cleaning the floor is funny because today you see ads that have the mops and sponges dancing around. Whoever is concerned about the dancing of the cleaning products and not what they actually do makes no sense to me. I keep seeing the same ads so it must be working.
ReplyDeleteI think you used good examples that show exactly how advertising has changed throughout history. There seems to be much less class in today’s advertising. Looking through the old magazines in class from the 1920’s really confirmed this notion. The ads back then would tell a story and would connect with the consumer on a personal level. Nowadays advertisements seem to revolve around sex. The product has become lost in all the smoke and mirrors. The two pictures you chose prove this concept. The Dolce and Gabbana ad does not even mention a specific product. The older ad, however, shows the product while also mentioning its’ uses. The older advertisements seem much more practical and simplistic. When I am looking at an ad, I should at least be aware of what they are selling. I think it may be time to get back to the old ways of simplicity.
ReplyDeleteI like the context of this post. There's no doubt that advertising has changed and will keep changing as we get more sophisticated in technology and with products. with the advancement of technology, there are always more things to advertise to the general public. I feel as if there is constant sensory overload throughout America. No matter where you are you can hear or see advertising for some sort of product anywhere that you go. I can envision a day where advertising is on every school bus, and every building in the country. There's also the point that many advertising firms are not trying to sell their actual product. As many of you have said, it doesn't make sense that a sasquatch is the selling point for beef jerky. However, that's not the point of the advertising campaign. I bet most of us that say that can remember the brand name of the top of our heads (Jack Link's Beef Jerky). I think that this evolution is good for advertising because many of these advertisements stick with us. Their not selling the product anymore, but instead they are selling the brand to us, in hopes that we will buy the product.
ReplyDelete