Michael Lewis - Outdated Advertising: Sexist, Racist, Creepy, and Just Plain Tasteless Ads from a Pre-PC Era

Contents

Foreword

by Ben B. From the earliest times, merchants have used some form of promotion to sell their wares. Early promotions ranged from the farmer in the village square positioning his best fruit at the front of his booth to shopkeepers displaying painted images outside, such as wooden loaves of bread at the baker or shoes at the cobbler. But the beginning of mass advertising as we know it resulted from the invention of the printing press around the year 1500. Printed ads could then reach hundreds or millions of potential customers. Some of these five hundred years of advertising have been preserved for our enjoyment and amazement. This book captures some of that historycreativity and misfires all.

The selected ads also represent the evolution of our culture and technology. One of the earliest advertisements in the set, introducing a strange liquidcoffee from Turkeyis worth a giggle. Two ads from the early history of the American colonies have dramatically different effects on modern sensibilities: one from 1609 offering fruit trees for farmers (practical and benign) and one from the 1800s listing slave auctions for the plantation (repulsive). In the early twentieth century, we find a magic lotion that will wash away fat in a few weeks (useless) and cocaine drops to relieve a toothache (dangerous). Varied images of women are presented in the ads: needing a deodorizing soap to catch a man, using a corset for beauty, pleasing your husband with great coffee, nude poses around a stereo speaker, Rosie the Riveter, the clever secretary. As for technology, we see the first TVs, the beginning of long-distance telephone systems, the first computers, and the first advanced word processorall hilariously primitive by todays standards.

Beyond the history that is represented in the selected ads, we find curious and often offensive copy. Will a woman considering a weight-reducing diet drink be enticed by a selection of wigs to change her personality? Is 7Up soda a good baby food? Do babies prefer that mothers smoke Marlboro cigarettes? Should a black Rastus, who cant spell, be a spokesman for Cream of Wheat? Should toddlers be handling loaded guns to demonstrate safety locks? Does a man need a pamphlet on how to spank his wife? How about a fake hand grenade to scare your friends? These and worse are all here. How to explain some of the misfiring messages in these ads? Some messages reflect the contemporary science of their day. Before the 1930s almost any potion was permitted as a patent medicine; magic tonics or devices were widely sold by enterprising hucksters. Cigarettes were claimed to be healthy. Chewing gum was a digestive aid.

No claims had to be substantiated by testing and there were few money-back guarantees. In the electronics sphere, technology evolved quickly. The first TV remote controls were quasi-mechanical devices that switched the power cord. The spokesperson for an early pocket computer was a science fiction writer. Another source of offensive or jarring messaging might be described as a targeting problem. Today an ad copywriter defines his or her target audience, say middle-aged males, and then selects magazines primarily read by that audience.

A message appealing to that specific audience might be appalling to others. Consider the ad with a baby playing with a loaded revolver: dad focuses on the safety features while mom is horrified. Or, think about the ad for mens ties with a wife bringing breakfast to her husband in bed, with a tagline advising him to show her its a mans world. That might have worked in a mens magazine but not in a womans fashion mag. Early advertisers were not always able to selectively target. An additional tricky subject is fantasy, which is a culturally bound appeal.

One ad for mens slacks depicts a womans body as a rug and the mans foot posed on top of her head. It claims that one look at their Dacron slacks will floor the girl so you can walk all over her. Another fantasy appeal, typical of cigarette ads, is that a man offering a woman the right smoke will get her right to bed. Not all women would respond positively to this idea. For women, a similar fantasy might be that adding or losing a few pounds to your bust will get the man. Finally, modern copywriters have learned that images of smiling customers are much more important than wordy text.

Fewer words provide less opportunity for confusion or offense. The old ads may have dozens of words depicting multiple performance claims for a product; the more one reads, the greater the disbelief. Modern ads usually focus on a picture with a mini-drama, such as parents showing pride over their handsome son. That scene avoids any message other than your son looks great in Dockers. Enjoy the ads. Ben B.

Judd Jr., PhD, is the former chair of the University of New Haven Department of Marketing and International Business, and the associate dean of the University of New Haven School of Business. During his career, Dr. Judd taught many courses on marketing research, e-commerce, retailing, and consumer behavior, including Principles of Marketing, Consumer Marketing, and Advertising and Promotion. He has also written extensively on advertising, global business, and new developments in trade and marketing. Some of his published essays include Do Nudes in Ads Enhance Brand Recall?, which appeared in the Journal of Advertising Research; Differences in Attitudes Toward Nudity in Advertising, which appeared in Psychology magazine; and On the Reduced Effectiveness of Some Sexually Suggestive Ads, which appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He served as a consultant to a wide array of organizations, industrials, and private enterprises, including media outlets, retail establishments, and cities. Dr.

Judd is now retired and devotes time to research and writing. He lives in Bethany, Connecticut.

Times have certainly changed since the days when the ads in this book were published. We, your authors, are savvy guys. Were wild and crazy writers and editors; we like to think weve been around and that weve seen it all. (Or at least some of it all.) Well, no.