Transcript Advertising in America

Advertising in America
War to the Post-War Era
Advertising Federation of America
Continue all normal distribution functions that do not
impede war efforts;
 Maintain channels and trade contacts for future needs
of industry;
 Preserve customer good will;
 Keep brand names alive;
 Prepare to build markets for post-war output of enlarged
capacities;
 Keep enterprises alive and capable of resuming full
employment;
 Preserve desire for eventual higher living standards;
 Discourage lowering of present living conditions beyond
necessary restrictions of war

Rationed Goods Ads
Unrestricted Consumption Ads

Ads promoted
the purchase of
products
available in
unrestricted
quantities
Deferred Purchasing Ads
Waiting until
peace to
purchase
 Emphasis on
war bonds

Working towards the war effort
1943 3M Scotch Tape War
Effort
advertisement.
Explains how Scotch
Tape
provides
a
waterproof
seal,
dustproof seal for the
cartons that contain
replacement parts for
tanks and trucks. In all,
more than 100 types of
tape
are
saving
precious minutes on the
front line and the
assembly lines.
Other Appeals
Wartime posters
A special wellknown poster
 the propaganda
purpose
 the seeds of the
feminist movement

1950 (post war)
 post war
representation of
women in advertising
returned to pre-war
standards,
emphasizing
women’s role as
mothers and wives

From War to Post-War
The world of consumption had been
hindered by the ‘un-American’ values that
the war was fighting against.
 Post-war freedom was the freedom to
spend and the freedom to consume…

Post War
Economic boom following World War II
allowed many Americans to become
consumers.
 Advertisers appealed to this dream of a
more convenient life.
 Some are still well known in America
today.

The American dream- more $$$ = more
consuming
 Advertisers aimed at housewives- Betty
Crocker
Domestic products for the home from the
war period onwards were advertised in order
to ease the lives of women.


Dramatic expansion of American purchasing power- companies were
constantly striving to meet and exceed consumer’s desires.

By 1946 companies were targeting women with technology.
•
Gendered advertising – pink, positioning other objects associated
with women in the same frame, object or subject orientated, noir
typing and veiled women.
•
Object orientation refers to the woman as a rhetorical or aesthetic
figure for an audience, which may or may not be female.
Subject orientation is based on representations, which are targeted
at a female audience.
•
•
Noir typing where subject/object distinctions collapse and a woman
is both addressed and objectified and the American woman was
expected to identify with this. Women were often eroticised.