Advertising through the Ages

Over the break, I spent a lot of time looking at advertisements from the early 20th century.  Here is a compilation of some randomly selected ads throughout the century paired with an example from the world of today:

1900s: An African American chef is feeding a white baby that is not his own.  In the 1900s, it was common for wealthy families to have servants, almost 50 years after the emancipation proclamation.  Also, the fact that the Cream of Wheat Guy's sign has improper grammar shows that the white advertisers behind the ad were profit-ing on an unfair stereotype.  2016: When I searched "Cream of Wheat 2016" I found their logo, featuring the Cream of wheat guy as their logo...still.  I'm not sure how I feel about this, but at least the ad doesn't have the same context as their older ads.  Another ad character to look up is Aunt Jemima, who has a similar past and present role in advertising maple syrup.

1910s: This was an ad for Hall's Wine.  Below the woman with a rose, it says "The Supreme Tonic Restorative" as if wine offered superior health benefits.  Today, we know that alcohol isn't particularly healthy, but can be enjoyed in moderation.  The main problem I see in this ad is that it is misleading.  Wine isn't pictured at all!
2016:  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any type of alcohol ad (with people in it) that wasn't graphic.  So, I just included a regular wine ad.  Most ads for wine don't feature people in it because it makes the product look far classier, but they often include claims that they are healthy, or at least natural.  For example, the wine shown above advertises its special "soybean" process which is questionable.  

1920s: In the 20's, women were gaining more freedom.  During the Great War, millions of men were drafted and their careers, replaced by young, unmarried women.  This ad also has little to do with the product.  It appears the product is some kind of soap or lotion, and the adverts claim that product helped the women overcome the "greatest hardship to success." From today's standpoint, that hardship was the divide between men and women.  Back then, maybe they believed it was not having soft hands.
2016: The video is one of many beauty campaigns that tell encourage women to break typical molds and stereotypes.  I think this ad, unlike the patronizing Dove Beauty Ads, is more successful in encouraging people to buy the product because it shows the how perception of men and women differs when they are side by side, which partially distracts from their product in certain scenarios.  But hey, advertising is advertising.

1930s: I've sifted through tons of cigarette ads from the 1920s, but none of them claim health benefits.  In the 1930s, there is a huge shift from smoking being a recreational activity to a medical one.  Doctors believed that smoking was good for the throat and for one's youthful appearance.  Today, the opposite is true.  Smoking leads to premature aging and is the number 1 source of lung cancer.  Consider your Adam's Apple.
2016: Today, most cigarette ads advise against them.  But there is a new contender: E-cigarettes, which claim to be healthier and less addictive (Key word: claim).  Though the first focuses more on health and the second on freedom, both people in the ads look very sophisticated, someone that the average consumer would want to emulate if they didn't know any better.

1940s: Despite the 19th amendment, there was still inequalities for women inside of the house, especially in the 40s and 50s.  In this Campbell's soup ad, the woman is feeding her a man who is either her husband or her son.
2016: Cleaning products are marketed to woman.  In the Mr. Clean ads, various women are seen is polishing kitchens with the help of Mr. Clean, who appears to be the ghost of a helpful husband.  Coincidentally, there are usually no real husbands in these ads, unless they are enjoying the clean counters at the end.  Like the first ad, the woman is responsible for the domestic work.

Many forties ads also included soldiers to rally support and hit people close to home whose husbands were off fighting. Of course, there was also propaganda for the women back home who now needed to step up and assume male roles.

  

Ads are important because, as Americans, we literally can't escape from them.  On average, we look at over 3,000 ads per day.  So if we can't analyze them, then we're letting them brainwash us, or at least have a moderate effect on the way we think.

After looking at all these ads, I've realized that advertisers are not evil.  In every case, they were just marketing to their audiences.  Companies make millions of dollars because their ads allow us to think their money is going farther than it is.  Often times, the ads are misleading and over-glorify them.  They add random, irrelevant details to the product that make it more appealing, and these additions have been shown to carry racist and sexist biases that are relevant to the time period.

I recommend looking at advertisements to get a proper understanding for social roles during the time period, because ads are so familiar to us today that if we just considered them for more than face value, we could learn a lot.  Here is a website that I recommend with lots of information about advertisements throughout history: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa/timeline/