1. Advertising Spending (US)
1880: $104 million; 1919: $1.4 billion
Ad share of newspaper-mag revenue
1880: 44% ; 1920: 66%
Number of US Daily Newspapers:
1854: 254
1900: 2,226
How advertise in so many local papers?
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2. Advertising Agents George P. Rowell New England, 1865- line rates
wholesaler of white space
“space jobber”
bulk buy for lowest price
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3. Space Jobbers Lord & Thomas religious publications J. Walter Thompson
magazines
exclusive access deals
“closed” contracts
Aligned with newspapers
Rebates, etc., if sell space full price
Buy space only w/ affiliated papers
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4. A.J. Ayer (N.W. Ayer & Son) modern agency “open” contract (1875)
advertiser-oriented service
commission system
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5. Ad Agent Functions knowledge of newspaper/periodical market
lowest prices (rate card cutting)
Media Buying:
researchers
space-buyers
checkers
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6. Ad Agent Functions Copywriting: little in late 1880s Illustration
advertisers “knew best”
freelance ‘advertising specialists’
Illustration
print shops/commercial artists
1. advertisers “knew best" product best/how describe it
2. freelance ‘advertising specialists’ (writers do ad copy for advertisers)
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7. Full Service Agency (Today)
Media Buying (Media Research)
Copywriting/Art Direction
Market/Consumer Research
(Public Relations, Govt Relations, etc)
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8. Ayer & Son: Full Service Agency
American Newspaper Annual 1880
1900: 160 employees/12 depts
Account executives
copywriters, art directors
Clients: Hires Root Beer, Procter & Gamble
Legitimacy
Remedial market research
1. Media Research American NEWSPAPER ANNUAL
5. Legitimacy: End Alcohol Accounts 1890s; Patent Meds (1900s)
6. Market Research, 1910s
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9. Summary Patent Medicines & Problem of Body/Mind
Modern Advertising: Symbolism/Market Data
Endurance of Patent Medicine Tradition
P.T. Barnum
Corporate Advertisers (Consumer Goods) Kellogg’s,
Socio-Economic Change
Second Industrial Revolution
Retailer-Manufacturer Power Struggle
Advertising Agents
Full-Service Ad Agency
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10. Advertising History 1880s-1930s
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11. Ad Spending (US newspapers/mags)
1880: $39 mil
1900: $95 mil
1910: $202 mil
1920: $528 mil
(13-fold increase)
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12. Advertising –Chain of Command
Publisher>Agent>
Advertiser>Consumer
2. ‘Modern’ (Today)
Advertiser-client>Agency> Media/Publisher>Consumer
Ayer and Son –Full Service Agency
1 Media Buying
2 Copy Writing
3 Market Research
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13. “Science” of Advertising
How demonstrate Ad’s effectiveness?
Tension:
Science-Art
Research-Creative
Da Vinci “Vitruvian Man”. (Also “Last Supper”; “Mona Lisa”)
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14. Copywriting: Reason Why
John E. Powers (1890s)
Approach:
informative, rational, straightforward
Conscious deliberation and reason
“state firmly what the product does and how it will benefit the buyer.”
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15. Reason Why plain speech/direct reader conversational style
emulate personal rapport w/shopkeeper
from focus on product to user
Today’s Examples?
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16. Psychology and Advertising
Outgrowth of philosophy, late 1800s
mental processes, idea formation, behavior
empirical approach to know mind/brain
influence of science/medicine
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17. Order-of-Merit Technique
Harlow Gale, (psychologist 1890s)
“what made ad noticeable?
Experiments:
Eye tracking
buy fictional brands
Subjects ‘order-of- merit’ preference
“Idealist” vs. behaviorist
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18. Order-of-Merit (Behaviorist)
H.L. Hollingworth (1910s/20s)
compare order-of-merit rankings w/actual sales
“general laws” for copywriting
1920s, dozens of studies
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19. Theory of Suggestion Walter Dill Scott
The Theory of Advertising (1904)
consumer: non-rational, suggestible to power of copywriter
persuasive techniques not information
ad aesthetics
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20. Scott/Suggestion Women as more suggestible
1920s: women --80% of consumption
Male advertisers & “emotional” women consumers
“irrational” women/ social prejudice
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21. John B. Watson J. Walter Thompson Behavioral psychology to advertising
“University of Advertising”
Behavioral psychology to advertising
Blind-fold cigarette brand recognition test
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22. Impressionistic Approach (early 1900s)
Ernest Elmo Calkins
appeal to reader imagination
beautiful ads penetrate “open minds”
colour, sensation, visual splendor
read magazines for diversion
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23. Aesthetics/Colour
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24. Pears Soap (1890s) Soap as Commodity Thomas J. Barratt
”Any fool can make soap”
Godliness, cleanliness, Pears
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25. Pears and High Art John Everett Millais “A Child’s World” (1887)
“Bubbles”
“incomplete angels”
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26. Pears/”Bubbles” Barratt buys painting blur art/advertising
children-innocence- cleanliness-Pears
Controversy
Associative Transfer
Pears/Middle-brow Culture
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27. Art, Advertising/Consumerism
Pop Art (1960s)
A. Warhol
Low Culture
High Culture
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28. Advertising, 1920s/30s (Marchand)
Capitalist Realism
Socialist Realism
Ads as Historical Evidence
Mirror or Zerrspiegel
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29. Parody (Socialist Realism)
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30. Advertising, 1920s/30s (Marchand)
Therapeutics of Advertising
Apostles of Modernity
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31. Advertiser as Wise Counsel
Listerine:
1920: general antiseptic $100k profit
1927 Mouthwash $4 mil profit
new social/medical affliction (“halitosis”)
heavy ad spending
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32. Listerine mini social dramas dramatic realism
vindicates use of psychology
emotional appeal over reason
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33. Worry Appeal/Scare Copy
Great Depression
Job loss fears
Examples
Advertising during Recessions?
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34. Interwar Advertising Social Change: urban/immigration
Social Adaptation
emotional/personal insecurities
Listerine/’halitosis’
apostles of modernity
conformity/emerging ‘mass society’
-Image: Armstrong Kitchen (1930s)
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