Jazz Age Advertising
Directions: Read the document about advertising and answer the following questions. Then, using this knowledge, analyze the advertisements below.
During the 1920s, sophisticated salespeople, graphic designers, and copywriters bombarded Americans with attractive, persuasive advertising campaigns. Modern advertising sought to convince consumers that the key to increased status, health, happiness, wealth, and beauty existed in the mass-produced goods available in department stores, chain stores, and mail-order catalogs. In prior decades, Americans had tended to define themselves at least in part based on factors such as race, ethnicity, region, religion, and politics. During the 1920s, however, Americans increasingly defined themselves through the houses, cars, clothes, and other goods and services they purchased.
Materialism: The Early Years
Most Americans not only had more money during the 1920s than they had in previous decades, but they also increasingly equated personal success with material goods—and modern advertising fueled this new attitude. Billboards, newspapers, magazines, and radio commercials touted the virtues of their various advertisers' products, and companies poured enormous sums of money into advertising. Collectively, American companies spent around $700 million on advertising in 1914, but by 1929 that figure ballooned to nearly $3 billion. Advertisers attempted to convince consumers that choosing their product instead of one sold by a competitor would enhance their health, safety, beauty, even the quality of their lives. Companies quickly found that advertising paid. For example, after an extensive advertising campaign, the American Tobacco Company, the manufacturers of Lucky Strike cigarettes, saw its earnings swell from $12 million in 1926 to $40 million in 1930.
Modern advertising flourished during the decade. Many 1920s ads created associations between a product and such desirable traits as youthfulness, attractiveness, intelligence, and popularity. These ads encouraged Americans to buy newly developed or "improved" items that they had never before considered necessary. Companies developed persuasive advertising campaigns that taught consumers regularly to purchase brand-name, often nonessential products.
You Are What You Buy
As late as the early 1920s, some print advertisements still functioned largely as informative declarations of a particular product's merits. These advertisements sought to create a subtle but positive impression on consumers. As the 1920s progressed, however, copywriters developed advertisements that appealed more overtly to consumers' psychological needs and fears. Increasingly, ads featured people enjoying a product, rather than merely showing the product itself. The language of advertisements became more personal and intimate, essentially encouraging American consumers to judge themselves and each other based not on strength of character but rather on the brand-name products they purchased.
During the 1920s, most advertising professionals were men, but about 10% were women, most of whom worked as assistants or copywriters. Many of the men who joined advertising firms were college graduates, and some had even earned degrees from the new business schools or advertising programs that flourished in the 1920s. Many of these university-trained advertisers gravitated toward the emerging field of market research and learned how to track consumer reactions to particular products and advertisements using statistics, surveys, and other analytical methods.
Billboards: Advertising on the Road
Eye-catching billboards along roads and highways promoted everything from the newest typewriter to breakfast cereal. And in one of the 20th century's most famous ad campaigns, in 1925, the Burma-Vita Company launched its billboards for Burma-Shave shaving cream. The company's first billboards were erected in Minnesota, but soon Burma-Shave signs were dotting the roadways across the country. What made these small billboards unique was that they were multiple signs designed to be read in succession by passing motorists. For example, a 1929 series of Burma-Shave signs read: Every shaver / Now can snore / Six more minutes / Than before / By using / Burma-Shave.
Streetcar ads catered to the industrial laborers who rode the cars back and forth to work, while neon signs, first introduced in 1923, provided a modern, high-tech look that made it easier to advertise products at night. In addition, department stores began hiring professional window dressers to present merchandise in appealing and creative ways. And comic strip characters hawked dolls and toys in the pages of the "funny papers." Small-scale advertising also continued, as hired boys walked the streets of cities and towns wearing sandwich boards to promote a restaurant's lunch special or a department store's big sale. Giant corporations sponsored early "commercials" that ran in motion picture theaters before feature presentations. Even architecture itself became a form of advertising, as roadside restaurants developed unique architectural designs to catch the attention of passing motorists. A coffee shop in the shape of an enormous coffee pot or an ice cream stand built to resemble a giant milk bottle was sure to attract customers.
Striking Gold: Magazine and Newspaper Ads
The rapidly increasing circulation of the larger national magazines and newspapers provided retailers with the chance to advertise their brand-name products coast-to-coast. The most popular and powerful national print advertising venues during the 1920s were masscirculation magazines, which, by the end of the decade, collectively sold more than 200 million copies a year. Magazine publishers quickly realized that profits lay not in subscriptions or newsstand revenues, but in the sale of valuable advertising space. The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Collier's Weekly, Life, Vanity Fair, and Scribner's all sold for about one-fourth to one-fifth the actual cost of printing them, yet their publishers raked in enormous profits from their many advertisers. In 1917, for example, The Saturday Evening Post's circulation was just under 1.9 million and generated advertising revenues of about $16 million. By 1928,circulation had risen by about 50% (to about 2.8 million), but advertising revenues had increased 300% (to more than $48 million).Women's magazines, including publications such as Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's, earned more than $75 million in advertising revenues in 1928.
As advertisers strove to distinguish their brand-name products from those of their competitors, print advertisements in magazines became more eye-catching and colorful. As late as 1924, more than three-quarters of the ads in most popular magazines were still printed solely in black-and-white; however, during the mid-1920s, the production of color advertisements rose significantly. The Coca-Cola Company, for example, ran four-color magazine ads and billboard posters, employing slogans such as "Enjoy Thirst" and "Refreshment Time." In 1929, Coca-Cola's advertising department created its legendary slogan, "The Pause That Refreshes," which first appeared in a series of advertisements in The Saturday Evening Post.
Daily newspapers represented another important advertising venue, but newspaper ads tended to be smaller and less elaborate than magazine ads. Nevertheless, newspapers did aid advertisers and retailers by promoting local businesses and sales. Grocery stores were one of the first industries to capitalize on daily newspaper advertisements. In the early 1920s, the Kroger grocery store chain began printing its weekly food prices and special sales in newspapers; by the end of the decade, this practice became widespread in the grocery industry. In fact, by 1929, the manufacturers of drugs, toiletries, food, and beverages spent more money on newspaper ads than did any other industry.
New Concept: Sponsors
At the beginning of the 1920s, the radio industry was still in its infancy. Radio hobbyists listened to crystal sets with earphones, and few had any inkling that this new medium would soon become such a powerful force. As broadcast signals reached farther and farther, and radio's popularity soared, the public first believed that the airwaves were a public trust that should be kept free from commercial sponsorship. This was not the case for long. In 1922, a real-estate corporation became the first paid radio sponsor on WEAF, New York, signaling the advent of commercial radio advertising. As the new medium of radio became more popular, companies increasingly broadcast their commercial messages over the nation's airwaves.
Initially, the commercial radio industry remained wary of alienating listeners who might find on-air advertisements intrusive and annoying. In turn, the magazine industry, which considered radio advertising unwelcome competition, warned against cluttering the airwaves with unwanted commercial messages. Critics of radio advertising argued that listeners would directly support their favorite stations, and thus the stations themselves would need no advertising revenue. However, few radio listeners wanted to pay for a service currently provided free of charge.
Still, the radio broadcasting industry proceeded cautiously, and for several years prohibited blatant "commercials" that directly offered or described merchandise. Rather, radio program sponsorship attempted to boost the name recognition of participating companies and their products. One common advertising practice was for companies to hire a band, orchestra, or other musical act to perform on a program named after the sponsor and then hope that listeners who enjoyed the show would purchase the company's products. In 1923, for example, the New York chain of Happiness Candy Stores hired two popular recording and vaudeville stars, Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, to team up on radio. Jones and Hare sang songs and told stories during their half-hour music-and-comedy program called The Happiness Boys, and in doing so promoted Happiness candy.
Beginning in 1923, the A&P chain of grocery stores sponsored The A&P Gypsies, which featured a band that played distinctive and recognizable exotic music, first for New York listeners and then, after 1927, for nationwide audiences on the NBC network. By the mid-1920s, the B.F. Goodrich Company was financing The Goodrich Silvertown Orchestra, and the Cliquot Club Ginger Ale Company was promoting The Cliquot Club Eskimos. The Eskimos evolved into a full-fledged dance orchestra and, as early as 1926, developed what is considered to be the first radio show theme song, "The Cliquot Foxtrot March."
As early as 1923, the National Carbon Company, the manufacturer of Eveready Batteries, began to sponsor the first major radio variety show, The Eveready Hour. This hour-long program, which aired on WEAF in New York and featured a mixture of music, news, drama, and comedy, proved an immediate hit with radio audiences. In 1926, the NBC network picked up the show for broadcast on more than 30 stations across the country. Top celebrities such as Will Rogers and D.W. Griffith made guest appearances, and regular cast members toured the nation to promote Eveready products. Between 1927 and 1928, Eveready spent $400,000 on the program, with pleasing results: its battery sales skyrocketed.
During the 1920s, sophisticated salespeople, graphic designers, and copywriters bombarded Americans with attractive, persuasive advertising campaigns. Modern advertising sought to convince consumers that the key to increased status, health, happiness, wealth, and beauty existed in the mass-produced goods available in department stores, chain stores, and mail-order catalogs. In prior decades, Americans had tended to define themselves at least in part based on factors such as race, ethnicity, region, religion, and politics. During the 1920s, however, Americans increasingly defined themselves through the houses, cars, clothes, and other goods and services they purchased.
Materialism: The Early Years
Most Americans not only had more money during the 1920s than they had in previous decades, but they also increasingly equated personal success with material goods—and modern advertising fueled this new attitude. Billboards, newspapers, magazines, and radio commercials touted the virtues of their various advertisers' products, and companies poured enormous sums of money into advertising. Collectively, American companies spent around $700 million on advertising in 1914, but by 1929 that figure ballooned to nearly $3 billion. Advertisers attempted to convince consumers that choosing their product instead of one sold by a competitor would enhance their health, safety, beauty, even the quality of their lives. Companies quickly found that advertising paid. For example, after an extensive advertising campaign, the American Tobacco Company, the manufacturers of Lucky Strike cigarettes, saw its earnings swell from $12 million in 1926 to $40 million in 1930.
Modern advertising flourished during the decade. Many 1920s ads created associations between a product and such desirable traits as youthfulness, attractiveness, intelligence, and popularity. These ads encouraged Americans to buy newly developed or "improved" items that they had never before considered necessary. Companies developed persuasive advertising campaigns that taught consumers regularly to purchase brand-name, often nonessential products.
You Are What You Buy
As late as the early 1920s, some print advertisements still functioned largely as informative declarations of a particular product's merits. These advertisements sought to create a subtle but positive impression on consumers. As the 1920s progressed, however, copywriters developed advertisements that appealed more overtly to consumers' psychological needs and fears. Increasingly, ads featured people enjoying a product, rather than merely showing the product itself. The language of advertisements became more personal and intimate, essentially encouraging American consumers to judge themselves and each other based not on strength of character but rather on the brand-name products they purchased.
During the 1920s, most advertising professionals were men, but about 10% were women, most of whom worked as assistants or copywriters. Many of the men who joined advertising firms were college graduates, and some had even earned degrees from the new business schools or advertising programs that flourished in the 1920s. Many of these university-trained advertisers gravitated toward the emerging field of market research and learned how to track consumer reactions to particular products and advertisements using statistics, surveys, and other analytical methods.
Billboards: Advertising on the Road
Eye-catching billboards along roads and highways promoted everything from the newest typewriter to breakfast cereal. And in one of the 20th century's most famous ad campaigns, in 1925, the Burma-Vita Company launched its billboards for Burma-Shave shaving cream. The company's first billboards were erected in Minnesota, but soon Burma-Shave signs were dotting the roadways across the country. What made these small billboards unique was that they were multiple signs designed to be read in succession by passing motorists. For example, a 1929 series of Burma-Shave signs read: Every shaver / Now can snore / Six more minutes / Than before / By using / Burma-Shave.
Streetcar ads catered to the industrial laborers who rode the cars back and forth to work, while neon signs, first introduced in 1923, provided a modern, high-tech look that made it easier to advertise products at night. In addition, department stores began hiring professional window dressers to present merchandise in appealing and creative ways. And comic strip characters hawked dolls and toys in the pages of the "funny papers." Small-scale advertising also continued, as hired boys walked the streets of cities and towns wearing sandwich boards to promote a restaurant's lunch special or a department store's big sale. Giant corporations sponsored early "commercials" that ran in motion picture theaters before feature presentations. Even architecture itself became a form of advertising, as roadside restaurants developed unique architectural designs to catch the attention of passing motorists. A coffee shop in the shape of an enormous coffee pot or an ice cream stand built to resemble a giant milk bottle was sure to attract customers.
Striking Gold: Magazine and Newspaper Ads
The rapidly increasing circulation of the larger national magazines and newspapers provided retailers with the chance to advertise their brand-name products coast-to-coast. The most popular and powerful national print advertising venues during the 1920s were masscirculation magazines, which, by the end of the decade, collectively sold more than 200 million copies a year. Magazine publishers quickly realized that profits lay not in subscriptions or newsstand revenues, but in the sale of valuable advertising space. The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Collier's Weekly, Life, Vanity Fair, and Scribner's all sold for about one-fourth to one-fifth the actual cost of printing them, yet their publishers raked in enormous profits from their many advertisers. In 1917, for example, The Saturday Evening Post's circulation was just under 1.9 million and generated advertising revenues of about $16 million. By 1928,circulation had risen by about 50% (to about 2.8 million), but advertising revenues had increased 300% (to more than $48 million).Women's magazines, including publications such as Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's, earned more than $75 million in advertising revenues in 1928.
As advertisers strove to distinguish their brand-name products from those of their competitors, print advertisements in magazines became more eye-catching and colorful. As late as 1924, more than three-quarters of the ads in most popular magazines were still printed solely in black-and-white; however, during the mid-1920s, the production of color advertisements rose significantly. The Coca-Cola Company, for example, ran four-color magazine ads and billboard posters, employing slogans such as "Enjoy Thirst" and "Refreshment Time." In 1929, Coca-Cola's advertising department created its legendary slogan, "The Pause That Refreshes," which first appeared in a series of advertisements in The Saturday Evening Post.
Daily newspapers represented another important advertising venue, but newspaper ads tended to be smaller and less elaborate than magazine ads. Nevertheless, newspapers did aid advertisers and retailers by promoting local businesses and sales. Grocery stores were one of the first industries to capitalize on daily newspaper advertisements. In the early 1920s, the Kroger grocery store chain began printing its weekly food prices and special sales in newspapers; by the end of the decade, this practice became widespread in the grocery industry. In fact, by 1929, the manufacturers of drugs, toiletries, food, and beverages spent more money on newspaper ads than did any other industry.
New Concept: Sponsors
At the beginning of the 1920s, the radio industry was still in its infancy. Radio hobbyists listened to crystal sets with earphones, and few had any inkling that this new medium would soon become such a powerful force. As broadcast signals reached farther and farther, and radio's popularity soared, the public first believed that the airwaves were a public trust that should be kept free from commercial sponsorship. This was not the case for long. In 1922, a real-estate corporation became the first paid radio sponsor on WEAF, New York, signaling the advent of commercial radio advertising. As the new medium of radio became more popular, companies increasingly broadcast their commercial messages over the nation's airwaves.
Initially, the commercial radio industry remained wary of alienating listeners who might find on-air advertisements intrusive and annoying. In turn, the magazine industry, which considered radio advertising unwelcome competition, warned against cluttering the airwaves with unwanted commercial messages. Critics of radio advertising argued that listeners would directly support their favorite stations, and thus the stations themselves would need no advertising revenue. However, few radio listeners wanted to pay for a service currently provided free of charge.
Still, the radio broadcasting industry proceeded cautiously, and for several years prohibited blatant "commercials" that directly offered or described merchandise. Rather, radio program sponsorship attempted to boost the name recognition of participating companies and their products. One common advertising practice was for companies to hire a band, orchestra, or other musical act to perform on a program named after the sponsor and then hope that listeners who enjoyed the show would purchase the company's products. In 1923, for example, the New York chain of Happiness Candy Stores hired two popular recording and vaudeville stars, Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, to team up on radio. Jones and Hare sang songs and told stories during their half-hour music-and-comedy program called The Happiness Boys, and in doing so promoted Happiness candy.
Beginning in 1923, the A&P chain of grocery stores sponsored The A&P Gypsies, which featured a band that played distinctive and recognizable exotic music, first for New York listeners and then, after 1927, for nationwide audiences on the NBC network. By the mid-1920s, the B.F. Goodrich Company was financing The Goodrich Silvertown Orchestra, and the Cliquot Club Ginger Ale Company was promoting The Cliquot Club Eskimos. The Eskimos evolved into a full-fledged dance orchestra and, as early as 1926, developed what is considered to be the first radio show theme song, "The Cliquot Foxtrot March."
As early as 1923, the National Carbon Company, the manufacturer of Eveready Batteries, began to sponsor the first major radio variety show, The Eveready Hour. This hour-long program, which aired on WEAF in New York and featured a mixture of music, news, drama, and comedy, proved an immediate hit with radio audiences. In 1926, the NBC network picked up the show for broadcast on more than 30 stations across the country. Top celebrities such as Will Rogers and D.W. Griffith made guest appearances, and regular cast members toured the nation to promote Eveready products. Between 1927 and 1928, Eveready spent $400,000 on the program, with pleasing results: its battery sales skyrocketed.
Questions
- During the 1920s, how did the ways in which Americans define themselves change?
- What were some of the forms of “modern advertising” used in the 1920’s?
- What did the language of advertisements encourage American consumers to do?
- Why do you think that we saw billboard advertising for the first time during the 1920s?
- Where did magazine publishers find most of their profits?
- What role did advertisements play in radio?
- For each of the ads, discuss how they are attempting to sell your product. What images, symbols, words, etc are used? Who are the directed towards? Which ad do you think is the most effective?