princessmonkey.com : advertising as culture

Introduction
For those who have never studied advertising as a part of history, the significance of its influence may come as a surprise to you.

The world has greatly depended on advertising to wizen up its citizens to the way we live today... not just fashionably, but hygienically, technologically, and informatively as well.

But the advertising industry has not always been the way we know it. Always changing with the times, sometimes changing the times themselves, the advertising industry - its history - is anything but boring. Read on, and you'll learn how consumers evolved from the Industrial Revolution and how who the advertisers are have changed since the early 1900's, when preachers' sons were making ads.

Painting the Past Away In the 1800's, the Industrial Revolution created loads of newfangled products, greatly expanding the need for advertising. Advertisers stood up to the test and took up the responsibility of explaining the different uses of new products, beginning brand differentiation of similar products for their audiences. The small-town and newly urbanized Americans took it all in. Even soap was now no longer generic, no-name soap. It was now "Dove," or "Caress," among a number of other brands with promises to keep its user's face/hands/skin as young/soft/beautiful as ever.

Contrary to its low-mixed likeability and reception today, back in the day, advertising was a helpfully hip industry. Advertisers were revered as gods of social conducts and were treated as knowledgeable resources. (This period itself was a definite shift away from the industry's previously sleazy days of selling patent medicines and snake oils. But shhh, we won't mention those here.) Advertisements grew more instructional, illustrating the importance of owning and using a toothbrush or a refrigerator, and informing the ignorant of the importance of clean socks, shaving, and music lessons. People trusted advertising to remedy their various social offenses. The advertisements began affecting and improving interpersonal relations as never before. But arguably, that shift really began with preachers' sons.

Preaching Sons in Advertising Preachers' sons were many of the early pioneers of good advertising.
Why preachers' sons? There are several reasons why these well-bred young men made perfect sellers of goods. Of all people, these guys learned the art of conversation and persuasion at an early age, refining the different techniques their own fathers used with large congregations. Advertising required (as it still does) grammatical precision as well as an appreciation for the English language. Preachers' sons just excelled in linguistic skills.

But most importantly, preachers' sons grew up with a key element... they were a rebellious bunch. They wanted to shake up the conservative system of their parents' generation, have more "self-absorbed" fun. These guys made it okay for consumers to spend money more lavishly, to splurge on the "finer things in life" without feeling sinful. With advertising, they could find their audiences.

Readers Read to Better Themselves: Then and Now And America accepted this. Buying and owning items; it became the American Dream. It was thus that advertisers became widely recognized as intelligent people to know, knowledgeable about the workings of new products and receiving overwhelming respect for their opinions.

But it's always been a roller-coaster affair. When the Great Depression hit in the early 1930's, people could not afford to spend as much. Many people blamed advertising for their extravagant spending, and thus their resulting losses. The ads grew really strange. The industry defensively took a more inspirational approach, pushing a stiff upper lip with high hopes for a better tomorrow. The images and text reflected the hard times, involving more information and reasons to buy specific products than ever before, known as "hard sales." (I added links from my other ad pages, found to the right, which will lead you to actual examples of these ads.)

Times progressed, and eventually the hard sales of the Rosser Reeves sort softened over time. The fundamentals didn't change too much, however. Over the course of history, advertising has been a reflection of our society, even today. Many of today's ads are not-so-serious pieces of modern salesmanship that sell to us in the comfort of our own environments. We don't go to the local shop next door to buy whatever the old man behind the counter stocks. We are more experienced and informed than people of those past eras. We prefer our stuffs to be made by particular brands and particular companies. With so many consumer choices, we've just become more particular people.

Today's consumers have clutter detectors to block out disinteresting stuffs in the storm of messages. Most of what does not meet our needs and interests is blocked out. Arguably, we're better equipped than any previous period of buyers: we know what we like, who we are, and what we want to see. We know when to walk away, to flip the channel or put our eyes back on the road, AND we also know when to shut the umbrella and tune in.

Advertising, more than ever, must be relevant. A fantastic ad captures your attention and sticks in your brain. You want to say to someone the next day: "Hey, did you see that ad...?" And this is my point. Just as classic advertising can be interesting, today's well-made advertising can be just as engaging. Not to mention, entertaining.

This site is about those types of ads. Some things here might make you laugh or smile... they might even surprise you. But first you have to allow yourself to accept that ads can be entertaining. (Many critics of our culture rarely admit it.)

Now... Begin Your Journey Into Advertising
Begin your journey to Fantastic Advertising. They entertain, they inform, they persuade, and they're ads from our times. Open your mind to a new type of time machine. Be sure to browse around... Fantastic Stuffs await your eyes!