“Examine technological and social changes, which marked the development of modern advertising between the late 19th Century and 1920’s. To what extent were social changes reflected in techniques and content of these early advertisements?”
The rise of modern advertising was a response to the industrial revolution and the development of the mass circulation press resultant from technological changes. The expansion of a consumer society and affordable consumer goods that marked social changes of the time, along with the press becoming reliant on advertising as a source of revenue, contributed to the rise of modern advertising. The idea of psychological advertising and persuasion of consumers developed, and advertisers looked to convince through emotional attraction rather than reason in early advertisements.
The industrial revolution changed society into a consumer society therefore changing industries goals to educate or persuade people to buy goods to keep factories running and keep up with this technological change. The advertising industry was one response to this. Advertisements were created to implement and manipulate consumers into thinking they needed to consume these goods. A consumer society was born. People wanted to keep up with trends and fashion and threw away functioning items as they felt they needed the new and improved item the advertisements told them. This way of thinking influenced the rise of the modern advertising industry.
Technological improvements, due to the industrial revolution, occurred with improved transportation, mechanics, warehousing and shipping. New technologies and methods of manufacturing increased the output and decreased costs of consumer goods. Warehouses and factories, the telegraph network and improved railways helped the faster nationwide distribution of goods. Along with increased manufacturing and new mechanisation due to the industrial revolution came the need for advertising, which could also now be dispersed nationwide due to the improved distribution techniques. Advertising was seen as an important path to take as industrialists saw the problem in overproduction and importance to keep up the demand to stop under-consumption and control the market. The development of chain department stores and supermarkets sped up the whole process of goods to consumer. This growing economics allowed department stores to expand and they used newspapers to advertise as a one stop and easy shopping experience which society was told they wanted. Convenience became the attraction for this new consumer society with time saving, simpler and low priced consumer goods.
From 1880, the promotion of brand name advertising was executed. With manufacturers needing to differentiate themselves from other similar competing products. Advertising was used to persuade the public into thinking that their product was the best and paramount in quality. Slogans, brand names and celebrity endorsements where used to stand out above the rest as the one and only product to buy. Brand names such as Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg, Cadbury and Coca-cola became household names synonymous to the product. Coca-cola has been a significant brand in advertising competing with similar imitate products. Coca-cola has employed slogans in competition such as “Demand the genuine”, “Accept no substitute” and by creating the new contour bottle synonymous to Coca-cola to distinguish itself as a brand and promote its highly regarded reputation.
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| "Good to the last drop" Coca-cola advertisment (1907) |
Display advertising became popular to grab consumer’s attention, with the development of mass press circulation supported by advertising revenue. Large, full-page advertisements with colour and pictures in a comic style, promising something, became common. Advertisements now became a method of persuasion and not merely to inform. Advertisements intended to convince people to purchase the consumer goods that could now rapidly be produced. They also changed society’s views on self-denial and simplicity to pleasure and consumption as the way to happiness. Society was told what they needed, creating “false” needs. Advertisements aimed at convincing consumers that health, happiness, success, and appeal would result from the product. Consumption became the solution to life’s problems. For example, Rosemary Hairdressing advertisement listed many things the product will do, promising the consumer.
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| "Rosemary Hairdressing” Harper’s Weekly, March 26, 1859 |
Before the 20th century advertising started becoming unreliable, having to compete. Advertisements were sometimes immoral and exaggerated claims, therefore people began not to trust advertising and see it as a negative influence. As Samuel Johnson criticised before persuasive advertising had even come into full effect, “advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquence sometime sublime and sometimes pathetic.” (1) This called for a psychological more subtle approach. Product placement, trustworthy “experts” promoting the product and professional psychologists where used to market the advertising of the product. Advertising agencies and ad campaigns were introduced to help advertise goods. Specialist people helped sell the goods and combine newspaper, magazine and outdoor advertising, such as billboards, streetcars, buses and trains, in a campaign to effectively sell them. A variety of mass media sources were used to advertise products. The mass circulation press and leaflets were now easier and cheaper to produce and distribute. Advertising became an economic business. New jobs were established and advertising was seen as an important respected aspect in selling consumer products in what had become a competitive market.
The technique of “Psychological” advertising was implemented after wartime propaganda established the use of advertising to persuade and influence mentally. War recruitment posters are a great example on how this psychological advertising was applied. “What did you do in the Great War, Daddy?” subtly recruits men by using emotional psychology. The use of emotional inducements, which in some way appealed to the consumer, was used as a way to persuade consumers. Consumers were convinced to trust the “experts’ and that buying a certain product would make their life better. This type of Psychological advertising became effective which manipulated what people thought they wanted, influencing, or perhaps feeding, a consumer society.
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"Daddy, What did you do in the Great War” Dalkeith Classic Poster Card, Savile Lumley, Great Britain, (1914) |
The concept of surplus, which arose from the industrial revolution and consumer society, identifies modern consumerism. The idea that we produce more than we need to survive contributed to the rise of a consumer society and therefore advertising. Luxuries became needs in the eye of the consumer and people became unsatisfied with what they had to get by, they wanted more. They wanted what advertisements told them they wanted. Advertising was used to create markets for products that didn’t have an existing market prior. People became dissatisfied with what they had and felt conscious about social status looking to consumption as the solution. Advertising focused on the consumer rather than the product and was aimed at profit making. The content of the advertisements were focused on emotional appeals. They weren’t looking for a reason in the content of the advertisement as long as it was emotionally appealing it would sell.
Although adverting on radio didn’t reach its full potential until the late 1920’s, it had a large influence in the techniques and content of modern advertising. Radio introduced a new medium for advertising, which was at first thought of as a bad idea, turning people against advertising all together. However with nationwide network coverage radio was son seen as an excellent vehicle for persuasion that influenced social changes and saw a change in content and advertising techniques. Radio allowed different approaches than to print advertising with a new way to grab consumer’s attention, not be ignored and permitted advertisements to be blended easily with entertainment as product placement. Music replaced the visual incentive of newspapers, magazines and billboards. For example the “tinkling” and “refreshing” music to suggest Clicquot Club soda became like a slogan to the brand. Brand consciousness, target audiences, a classless society and cultural stereotypes grew from the use of radio as an advertising medium.
Modern advertising consists of advertising agencies, who employ a range of specialists from copywriters and psychologists to designers and artists, and approach advertising as a whole campaign. The subtlety of emotional or psychological advertising, use of name brands and slogans and role to persuade are the aims of modern advertising which came into place between the late 19th century and the 1920’s. Technological and social changes have influenced the development of modern advertising. The industrial revolution and introduction of a consumer society have had an impact on the content and techniques implied by early modern advertising. Advertising has had a large impact on consumer society and has been thought of as the creator of such a society, however, human needs are socially constructed and maybe advertising just responds to social trends. “Advertising is but one factor among many in shaping consumer choice and human values”. (2)
Notes:
1. Samuel Johnson, quoted in:
Gorman L & McLean D, Media and Society in the Twentieth Century, 2003, Blackwell Publishing Carlton
2. Schudson M, Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion: Its Dubious Impact on American Society, 1993, Routledge, London
Bibliography:
Fischer, D., American Culture Studies, University of Heidelburg, Hornung, 2002, viewed May 2008 < http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~el6/presentations/pres_c2_hoa/19thand20thadvertising.htm>
Giles, D., Media Psychology, 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ
Gorman, L. & McLean, D., Media and Society in the Twentieth Century, 2003, Blackwell Publishing, Carlton VIC
Lutus, P., Arachnoid- A Playground For Thinkers, 2007, viewed May 2008 <http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/consumerangst.html>
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