Ad History P McKercher 1/25/99

Summary/reading notes

The Mirror Makers: A Hist of Am. Advertising & Its Creators by Stephen Fox, U of Ill. Press 2nd ed, 1997 HF 5813 U6 F66

Thesis: ads gained power in early C20, peaked in 1920's and has been declining since, despite the number and am't of money spent on ads increases constantly. Ads are used as scapegoat, but reflect cultural values more than shapes them 6. Ads created three medias: magazines, radio and TV [Internet?]

After Civil War, ad people were only space agents, barely tolerated; the company itself designed ad. Daily papers got only 1/3 of revenue from ads, mags even less. Ads were an embarassment, led to suspicion that a co was in trouble (15). No gov't regs, so lying ok. Patent medicines sold $75m/yr by turn of century. Lydia Pinkham medicine was an early ad pioneer (used her pix). That sales went down when ads stopped proved they worked. Royal Baking Powder one of the 1st to have a pix of product; spent $600K/yr on ads (22). First full-time copywriters 1890's.

By 1900 ads had 10x since C War to $500 m. In 1890's plain text --> headlines, pix and fonts. However, Lasker recognized the importance of good copy. Patent medicines subject of exposes --> (AMA and women's clubs pressured for) 1906 Pure Food and Drug act which forced labelling of active ingredients (Pinkhams had 18% alcohol as preservative), but mfgers only altered labels and claimed that their product was guaranteed by the Act; sales rose 60% (65). Act put no limits on ads, but as ads became more important, people started to worry about journalistic integrity and public morality, so ad industry launched the first of many self-regulating efforts (to preempt the gov't, usually). (68). However, change of style to atmospheric ads did more to eliminate false claims than anything else [b/c no claim is being made?!]. (also first of many times an old technique is recycled, with a bit of pruning, and claimed as innovative. Famous "Penalty of leadership" ad was inspirational slogan that never mentioned Cadillac cars. During WWI, ad indusrty donated $1.5 m worth of ads [to the war effort].

ADS IN 20'S often related to health and hygiene, but also class undercurrent (eg modern bathroom all tile).(100).

Cigs: in 20's pipe smoking down 9%, cigars down 20%, cigs up 123% to 106 billion units/yr. GW Hill smoked 4 packs of Luckies/day, advertised heavily., wrote his own ads. He was1st to mkt to women, using movie stars (H Hayes: "reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet") and singers, who claimed it helped voice. At start of Depression, LS had 38% of mkt, GWH's salary $2m/yr. He was also an early radio sponsor. Used endoresment of sea rescue guy who attributed sucess to his crew smoking --> 1930 FTC rule said endorser must use product, declare paid testimonials, and stop claiming cigs control wt (116). In 20's Watson's behavioral psychology influenced some ads.

Depression: ads cheerleader for economy, so linked together. Ads declined from $3.4b to 2.3b 2 yrs late., bottomed out in 1933 at 1.3 b dollars. People wanted cheap durable necessary goods, so flashy adverts risky. Several popular novels targeted ad indusrty, so again attempt at self-reg. In 1931 early Gallup Poll found economy and quality ranked high, sex low overall when ads themselves analyzed, tho when asked which ads were remembered, for men quality #1 then sex; for women sex, vanity then quality (thus the ads that worked the best were ones that were being used the least?)?! (138).

RADIO emerged in 30's , tho no one knew how to use it for ads (originally w/ headphones only, so more or less like telephone). Sold heavily on introduction in early '20's. People thot ads wd be offensive, but AT&T (which had a patent on radios) decided to risk selling 10 min of air to anyone for 100 bucks. Real estate co quickly sold 2 apts, so soon 25 sponsors. Lucky Strike had pgm of dance music, and sales up 47% in 2 mos (154). Mentioned product 70 times /hr. Housewives thot to be too busy to listen to radio, but in '29, 1st soaps.

By end of 30's, a large consumerist movement was forming, calling for more gov't regs; undermined by WWII. Again, ad industry helped war efforts, and ad revenues actually grew (170). Doubled in 5 yrs after war to $5.7b. Cars became #1 ad. Many more similar products competed, so big increase in ads, so had to be short and visual to break through clutter of ads. Freudian Motivational Research comes into vogue, exposed by Vance Packard's 1957 The Hidden Persuaders, a best-seller. Exposed subliminal ads.

TV followed radio model of sponsor, and actually led to quality pgms., but hard to tell pgm from ads when host promoted the product, and DeSoto won't let a character be named Ford etc. Then networks realized that 4 sponsors more profitable than one, and ratings become all.

60's had youth movement (w/o trad, to be with it becomes all) and creativity. Ethnics break into ad biz (tho often pigeon-holed in niche mkting) People demanded more positive images of selves (sex obj down, but women still shown to be dependent)

1964 Surgeon Gen'l report on smoking: industry agreed to stop mkting to kids and stop claiming cigs improved health, sex or social success (304) 1969 FTC mandated warnings, and req co's to submit data.

1964 LBJ ad pulled by LBJ (infamous flower becomes A-bomb ad against Goldwater). 1968 expose of Nixon Campaign showed the power of ads in politics: Candidate w/ most money usually won, but not always.

70's: recession leads to hard sell, concerns about ads for kids First corrective ads ordered [E.g., Listerine had to state that their claims for years to help colds was not true]. 1st Comparative ads (eg cola and burger wars)

In 80's cultural imperialism reversed itself w/ influence of UK advertisers, which bought many US firms. '83 study found 13% claim to pay no attn to ads, next yr 20%. 7K ads/day (ix) Saatchi did blunt pol ads '78. Early 70's luxury car ads pure atmoshperics and laughably ineffective. Energizer bunny ads popular, but lost mkt share to Duracell. 90's pendulum swung back to comparative ads, w/ less creativity and humor.

Ency Brit: Total US ads in '96 expected to rise 7% to 172 billion dollars. 30 sec spot in prime time Olympics $550K. Worldwide ads expected to be $385B. Hard liquor ended 50 yr old self-imposed ban on TV ads.