Advertisement from 1900 through 1925 was extraordinarily limited in the intended audience, as can be obviously seen by both the graphics and the writing on the ads themselves. Each and every advertisement shown in this collage featured women. This implies that through the years 1900 and 1925 only women and their servants bought ingredients to make food and that they bought this food with very specific things in mind. Many of the scenarios in the advertisements are also extremely stereotypical. For example, in the advertisement entitled “The Unexpected Guest” an older, judgmental figure is sitting down to a meal. A young woman is smiling, pampering her, and desperately trying to make a good impression. The text suggests that she could impress the woman by feeding her a certain food. By making this sales pitch to women, the company is suggesting that every woman has been in the same situation – trying to impress a mother in law, their child’s schoolteacher, or a town busy-body. It also suggests that the duty of impressing this figure would fall totally on the woman’s shoulders. All in all, these advertisements suggest that these years were a time where women were the only occupants of the kitchen.
Advertisements from 1925 through 1950 were suddenly more concerned with how the product could help you to live an ideal life. The pictures show men, women, and children with huge smiles on their faces living a rich, leisurely life. In the bottom right picture of this collage, there is an advertisement featuring a worried women looking out into her front yard, where young boys are playing a sport with a ball, but one child is looking at the game leaning against a tree. The woman wonders what’s wrong with the boy, and the text in the ad announces that there’s something that could make her situation all better, suggesting the company’s food would make life better both for the mother and the little boy. None of these ads have catchy slogans or promises of quality, but rather an example of what life could be like with the product. This suggests that Americans during this time period were very concerned with making their lives easier and nicer, as can be seen in the top right advertisement. Its title reads “From all the time you save, take one moment to say Swift’s Premium”. This meat advertisement suggests that by using the product, the family will have lots more time on their hands.
After the 1950’s, advertisements slowly began to morph into a more shallow practice. Many of these ads catered to young mothers with small children. The tone of the ads selling products relating to babies have a very simple, almost condescending tone, suggesting the people buying the products didn’t have much experience with children, but want the best for their growing families. For example, the bottom right advertisement for Heinz baby foods uses just enough scientific information to inform a potential buyer that the company knows what it’s talking about, but not enough the confuse a simple minded, novice housewife. This gives a window into the target audience for these products. Therefore, it is implied that throughout the years 1950 through 1975, there were a large amount of naive, inexperienced young wives. The large amount of weight loss advertisements, such as the line drawing on the top row, show that appearance was very important to these women. This particular trait had not been seen before, showing that it was getting more and more important for American families to appear perfect on the outside.
In the years 1975-2000, advertisements became a little more recognizable to what they are today. Most are extremely brief, but convey a very effective and short message and leave a lasting impression. There are the stately, understated, intellectual ads, such as the chocolate golf ball and funny salad face. Others and cute and silly, such as the cheerios and Kellogg’s advertisements, which are catered to mothers and young children. Let’s not forget as well the sexual material in advertisement that was introduced around this time period, as proven by the two ads on the far right. The top one reads “who says you have to be a grandma to bake like one” and shows a beautiful young woman. This ad was catered to women who wanted to have the appeal shown in the advertisement, and therefore would by the product. The ad below it shows a nude woman in a bathtub surrounded by bottles of mineral water. This advertisement was probably catered to men who wanted to date a girl with the same appeal as the woman in the photograph. All in all, the varied advertisements that began to develop shows us that these years were a time of diversifying America and celebrating independence and different groups.
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