Blog #2 The ever changing history of advertising

            Advertising has been one of the most changing industries in the Unites States.  In as early as the 1880’s lighted signs cane about in Broadway Avenue in New York City.  These signs caught immediate attention of people walking down the streets and drew in many more new customers.  With these lighted sings cane Time Square in New York City in 1904.  This place is still known as one of the most advertised places in our country. They had colored lighted lights used with neon tubes to create a better light, with more colors.  From the development of Times Square came the famous “8 story high piece of light up Wrigley spearmint chewing gum.” 

            With all of these famously and heavily advertised areas, and the many ads that were taking over the radio stations they soon realized that they could use television, invented in 1927, to stream advertisements to many different kinds of people in their own homes.  In 1932 opinion advertising started by Gallop.  He used a form of advertising called imperial marketing. Imperial marketing is simply using persuasion.  He stated that repetition was key. He claimed that repetition made people think more about the product.  He also decided that red was the best color to use; he said that it drew to the eye. Lastly, he said to use puppies and babies. Using helpless and cute things as a face for a product made people remember them, simply for the reason that they were so cute. 

            After Gallop’s theory came about political ads came into play during elections.  These ads went from being a “test” to see how well TV advertising would work to the forefront of all political races.  The First ad was for Eisenhower.  In each ad, which were about 20 seconds long, a citizen just off the side of the street and he would answer their questions.  After he answered each question the ad would zoom in on the citizens faces and they would be looking at him as if he was a hero.   This was the first political campaign to capture the hearts of viewers at home because he was advertising to them in the easiest way, in their own homes. 
click here for Eisenhower's commerical

            These ads never started out to be degrading or meant to cut down the opponent like they are today. The ads today are so bad that one I heard was claiming that one of the candidates was involved in child pornography. It did not make the man look bad; it made the other man look desperate.  All the older ads used catchy happy jingles, lots of color, and repetition to capture the viewer’s attention.  Johnson then aired an advertisement that started this bad cycle of depressing ads.  His ad was of a young girl picking petals off a daisy and things exploding in the background.  He used fear to capture his viewer’s attention to his ad.  This was also during the Vietnam War when citizens were already uneasy about the subject of war, especially with a young girl in the midst of it.  From Johnson’s ad now negative ads have become the forefront of all the political campaign. I can’t remember the last time that I saw a political ad that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. They have gotten so negative and degrading that I typically change the channel when they come on. 

            From the television ads came the use of social networking and the Internet to advertise, which is a whole new insight into the advertising world.  President Obama used popular networking sights such as facebook, MySpace, and twitter.  On facebook and MySpace you are able to create groups that people can join and then follow up on events, information, and anything else the campaigners decided to put on the site.  With Obama’s election came the issue of image. From television ads alone, political or not, they portrayed the image of a “perfect person.” That image had stuck in our heads since TV came out.  With McCain his looks were not on his side, along with his age, younger people automatically assumed he could not relate to their generation. Weather it’s a television, print, radio, or an 8 story sign, advertising has and always will be in our lives. I think we can say that advertising is one the industries in our country that will never stop changing. 

Sources:

“The history of advertising 1-9” www.youtube.com]

“1952 Eisenhower vs. Stemson” http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1952