1920s Advertising Analysis

In Advertisements R Us by Melissa Rubin, she analyzes how advertisements appeal to its audience and how it reflects our society. Rubin describes a specific Coca-Cola ad from the 1950’s that contains a “Sprite Boy”, a large -Cola Coca vending machine, a variety of men, ranging from the working class to members of the army, and the occasional female. She states that this advertisement was very stereotypical of society during that decade and targeted the same demographic: white, working-class males- the same demographic that the Coca-Cola factories employed.

In “What We Are to Advertisers” and “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” both Twitchell and Craig reveal how advertisers utilize stereotypes to manipulate and persuade consumers into purchasing their products. Companies label their audience and advertise to them accordingly. Using reliable sources such as Stanford Research Institute, companies are able to use the data to their advantage to help market their products to a specific demographic. Craig and Twitchell give examples of this ploy in action by revealing how companies use “positioning” to advertise the same product to two demographics to earn more profit. Craig delves more into the advertisers ' plan by exposing the science behind commercials. Advertisers are able to create content based on

Images of women have been used to sell products and send subliminal messages since we could remember. Today, it has become apparent that the way these women are photographed and used for advertisements is creating a concept that women are just objects. Over the past few centuries the objectifying of women has only increased. When television was first invented in the 1950’s families would come together and spend time watching their favorite shows. One thing the shows on TV during the 50’s has in common in are the stereotypical gender roles with no sexuality application. Women were held to higher stands that did permit any sexual behavior or clothing. Media back then wanted women to be attractive and behave properly instead of having sex appeal.

Sullivan continues through this section, taking note of revolutionary changes in advertising, including the difference between the 1950s vs. 1970s consumer perception of ads. Ultimately however, Sullivan poses the question of what type of advertiser the reader wishes to become. One could

Advertising has been around for decades and has been the center point for buyers by different subjects peaking different audience’s interests. Advertisers make attempts to strengthen the implied and unequivocal messages in trying to manipulate consumers’ decisions. Jib Fowles wrote an article called “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” explaining where he got his ideas about the appeals, from studying interviews by Henry A. Murray. Fowles gives details and examples on how each appeal is used and how advertisements can “form people’s deep-lying desires, and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for” (552). The minds of human beings can be influenced by many basic needs for example, the need for sex, affiliation, nurture,

America has been influenced by many people, inventions, and cultural phenomenons since it’s confederation in 1776. Phineas T. Barnum has influenced much of mass-entertainment since coming to America in 1834 at age sixteen (Harris 13), he has vastly changed what it means to promote and entertain in American Culture. His knowledge of what people want and how to make people think they want what he had, was amazing. He constantly fooled people and had a way of making the customers come back. James Cook argues that Barnum’s fascination with the entertainment business began in July 1835 while reading a newspaper article about Joice Heth, a one-hundred sixty-one year old maid of General Augustine Washington and nanny of later President George Washington. Cook claims this was the start of “mass-scale consumer entertainment” (Cook 9). This was the beginning of promotion and advertisement for the modern period, Barnum’s style of advertising would have a long-lasting effect on American culture and modern society, and prove to be the most effective way to advertise to large-scale audiences, promoting the mass-entertainment and mass-media

Advertising is a strategy used to pull in someone’s consideration of a product or item of sale. Publicizing is a critical and basic method for organizations to make themselves known in the advertising game. Most ads can be found in daily papers, magazines, bulletin, transports, web, and on the radio, flyers, pamphlets or publications. Basically here is the point of an ad. Imagine yourself walking down the street and you spot a hundred-dollar bill on the ground, so of course you bend to pick it up, but it begins to drift away. So you reach for it again and again failing to get it, you realize it brought you to something or someone you didn’t know. In this example we are the target audience which in most cases this is true. The hundred dollars

To get a glimpse into the effectiveness of advertisements during this period, one can inspect the brilliant advertising campaigns targeted at middle class women. The women were taking care of the home and would thus be most interested in many of the new household items for sale. The advertisements were meant to have consumers associate emotions and ideals with products. For example, The Kellogg Brothers and Charles Post both succeeded in making the American public associate cereal with healthy eating, and thus cereal became a staple of American eating (Eversole).

Rabinovitch-Fox, Einav. "Baby, You Can Drive My Car: Advertising Women's Freedom in 1920s America." 33.4 (American Journalism Fall 2016): 372-400. Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed March 27,

The 1920s were marked by an increase in consumerism due to a booming economy post-World War I (CrashCourse, 2013), the increasing popularity of consumer debt (CrashCourse, 2013) and an increase in the mass production of consumer goods (Osburn, n.d.). Coupled with technological advances, families now had access to mass media (in the form of the radio and television) and modern conveniences, such as household appliances and automobiles. Radio and television broadcasts helped to build a mass culture, where consumers were watching, listening, purchasing and emulating the same things across the nation (Osburn, n.d.). Women’s suffrage granted women the right to vote; some women took this new found voting freedom as license to break from traditional female roles in other areas and began dressing and

The first ad she presents features a baby in the back seat of a car, while the carseat, which the baby is supposed to sit in, is filled with sports gear, implying that the gear is more important than the child. Instead of being concerned with the safety of the infant, the driver decides that his gear takes priority. Ads also objectify people, especially women. Out of the eleven ads that are included in Kilbourne’s essay, six of them uses women to promote their product, ranging from a cheap Butterfinger to precious jewelry. One particular ad shows a man gazing passionately at a woman whose face is obstructed by a car magazine. The ad uses the woman as a tool to persuade consumers to embrace its new car just like the man in its poster

Although the 1920’s brought an economic boom and a monumental achievement in women’s rights, the 20’s were not beneficial to the United States of America. There is a widespread misconception that the 1920’s were an American golden age due to the economic success and progress in gender equality; however, America in the 20’s exemplifies the dangers of national complacency after major success. The 1920’s were harmful to America as a country because of the conflict over modernity, or old versus new, the rise of an exploitative consumer culture, the prevalence and promotion of racism, and the lack of respect and equality for women, even after their successful suffrage movement.

Posters have been around as long as we can remember. The popularity of posters increased in the late 1920s and even into the late 1930s. Their distinct look helps them stand out from the rest as they were usually colorful and vivid. A small group of people aided their increasing popularity.

Advertisement plays upon emotions, creating a scenario that heightens the consumer’s emotional state. They build a fantasy in which the consumer’s life is better because of the product. Advertisements sell values, images, love and sexuality. Over the years advertisements have attempted a wide variety of advertising approaches like humor, sex, emotions. Advertisers use one of these appeals to ensure that the targeted audiences receive their message. The media’s framing of women in highly restricted and negative ways is a global phenomenon that cuts across all cultures and has endured a long passage of

According to the Oxford dictionary gender is defined as being male or female, often used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. For example Biology says 'It 's a Girl! ', and Gender says 'We 'll buy those pink outfits, the Barbie’s and the Dolls House!". One might be born a woman or a man, but that does not necessarily mean that one is therefore born to be either a housewife/homemaker. The media and advertising are at fault for how gender is portrayed on adverts they create gender roles which the public perceive as the correct way to behave. Lips (2001: p14) said that Gender role refers to the attitudes, behaviour, and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex & are learned through the socialization process. This has all created a gender stereotype. The media are a forceful source of gender stereotyping. In adverts women are portrayed as the unintelligent consumer, socially conscious of her purchases, dependant on men and sex objects whereas men are perceived as a figure of authority, handy men and intelligent decision makers. Advertisements try to persuade the public into believing this is how women and men are, want to be or should be. In this essay I will be discussing how femininity is represented in contemporary advertisements.