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Exploring the 1950's,60's,70's and now advertising to understand when was or is the golden age of advertising. of advertising
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When was the golden age of advertising,can it be true that it's now?
by Greta Medelyte
Level 5
BAGD
The golden age of advertising is said to be the 1960’s1970’s because of the creative
revolution though there are many different opinions that it might have been the 50’s or
some say that it might be right now when technology has changed the way we see the
world, the way we communicate and even the way we handle our daily lives. Others say
that advertising is dying just because we are being bombarded by unnecessary
commercials on TV and online doesn’t mean that there are none of the good advertising
out there. So can we actually determine when the golden age was and why it was at that
point and time? For once lets look and analyze at each decades positives and negatives in
advertising.
The 1960’s and early 70’s is thought to be the golden age of advertising and as much as
we would like to think that it is a creative revolution stimulated by genius creative minds as
nothing before we might underestimate the power of circumstances? There is more to
advertising than just plain images, in order to understand the power and how effective or
different it was in the times there is a crucial importance to understand the times and the
history. Was the 1960’s the best time for a creative revolution ? Of course, with the help of
President Kennedy and his economy growth plan things improved vastly in U.S.. In early
1963 inflation was stable, corporate profits were at a record high, and the stock market
had rebounded, but unemployment was still too high at 5.7 percent.With the corporate
sales increasing and new businesses starting off the competition has become dense and
advertising was needed more than ever before. The modern days brought revolution in the
way people shopped and ate, there were also new forms of entertainment and a loads of
new big brands launched off. The circumstances were perfect for advertising to flourish.The
media platforms might have been limiting (compared to nowadays) and the ad agencies
provided not only the ads but the spaces for the advertisements bought from the publishers
of magazines and newspapers (‘The real mad men’,2011). Only from 1969 George P.
Rowell released the first comprehensive guide to media rates, that changed the game for
the advertising agencies they started depending on the creative side more than before.
Which launched off the platform for great creative minds and copywriters. A huge
contribution of 60’s being called the creative revolution was the sexy, brave and outrageous
lifestyle conveyed into ads and running alongside within the agencies. The way we
perceive the 1960’s as the golden age of advertising might be because of the public
figures that came from that age such as George Lois, Roger Sterling and many other
advertising giants that hit the world in 1960’s. It might be one of the consequences of
having more individualism and more structure in ad agencies.The ownership of idea was
clearer than it is right now as Matt Nelson from Tribal DDB claims ‘every member of our
team is creative and we believe a good idea can come from anywhere’.That means that
there is less ownership over idea because the ideas are shared and changed and
developed by many people. ‘The business of advertising wasn’t without it’s principles and
principled people’ (‘The real mad men’,2011) such said explains the character and one
man drive in those times. Maybe there was more of a personal opinion included more than
in the 21st century where there is more of collaboration and compromise not only within the
creative team but clients as well. In the 60’s People were looking for heroes, they were
looking for people that would tell them what to do so there were people that would happily
do that.
There appears to be more than one controversion about the golden age of advertising
being 1960’s as the TV series ‘Mad Men’ appear to made the whole nation believe. Some
ad giants believe that 1950’s was that golden age because of the absolutely amazing and
genius (might not be good but still brilliant) cigarette advertising methods. Tobacco
advertising was banned in mid 60’s in UK, beginning of 70’s in US and only early 90’s in
whole Europe. As strange as it may seem but the most recognizable and memorable
cigarette advert ‘The Marlboro man’ even for the generations to come that were non
existent in that time when the adverts were lunched know ‘Marlboro Man’. The Marlboro
man campaign created by Leo Burnett became national in 1955 and increased Marlboro
sales up to $5 billion and kept increasing each year until 1964, the company revived the
cowboy but this time he was in mythical Marlboro Country by the time TV ads were banned
in 1971 (US), Leo Burnett launched a printed version of the campaign and in 1971
Marlboro cigarettes became the no.1 cigarette brand in the world. The cigarette compaign
was based around the idea of a free American iconic man, there was power,passion and
control reflected in one iconis advertisement, even when the cigarette comercials were
band the Marlboro man stayed in peoples mind for decades. Now we have more
limitations and that not only includes Tobacco. Some commercials can only be shown after
a certain hour, there are considerations to ban ads that are directed to children. Maybe all
these limitations tho done for a purpose but limit creativity. Just recently a poster promoting
an energy drink called ‘pussy’ was baned. The ad campaign, which used the strapline "The
drink's pure, it's your mind that's the problem" alongside the word "pussy" in large type,
attracted almost 160 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority and later on was
banned. That has happened in early days as well. In 1974, the U.S. Department of justice
brought an artistic lawsuit over the campaign ‘Reach out and touch someone’ where they
used a wordplay with the word ‘Hello’ and ‘Halo’. Later in the year the adverts got even
more provocative and disturbing when added a mother that has just received a call from
her dead son.
Considering the amount of media that we have right now and the technological
development me might be living in the golden age of advertising right now. Though it might
seem that there are more restrictions and the ad world is run more through the client needs
rather than the creativity and still there are viral and worldwide adds that are being released
every day. The advertising agencies have developed in the most interesting and
unexpected ways. starting from the roles of workers and ending in approaches or methods
that are being used. MATT NELSON a member on DDB (well known advertising agency)
says that ‘at Tribal DDB, every member of our team is creative and we believe a good idea
can come from anywhere. Everyone’s a little bit of a strategist, account manager, new
business person yet each of us has our own specialized role based on an area of
expertise. We work together, not in silos.’ Which just proves the point raised before that the
clarity and ownership (in 1960’s) of idea has disappeared within the agency (21st cent),
nevertheless there are still some companies that are known because of their art directors
and yet no one like Leo Burnett or George Lois. Not only the structure in the agencies have
changed but ranks and age perception as well when in 1960’s there were a lot of
possibility for young talent to shine and develop nowadays we rarely see it, there is this
cursed word called ‘experience’ that everyone is looking for and noone provides. In 1960’s
there was youth movement on the go, there were a lot of talented young and motivated
people and though there still is young talented people but the way the industry and society
perceives yong (mid 20’s) people nowadays is different from what it was in mid 60’s. Not
only that but the consumer from 50’s/60’s has changed so much as Dan Wieden said in his
interview for ‘2020 vision’ that the new generation of consumers are not going to sit there
and except the products and messaging. They want to be part of the action and if the
clients are smart they have to understand that they are not the president of communication
system that they are one person in communication with millions of people so they have to
listen. D.Wieden also raises the question of interaction and how new media is used in
advertising, he explains that in order for the idea to work it has to be well delivered through
a range of media. The problem with that is that consumers have developed their tastes and
there are more of a target audience in the 21’s century, the only doubt about the advertising
being the golden age now is that it’s everywhere and there is a lot of bad annoying
advertisement everywhere in the mid 60’s people were bombarded with disturbing TV ads
and didn’t appreciate that as well, so even in the so called and believed to be ‘golden age
of advertising’ consumers were annoyed with some of the booming adverts as it is now just
through many media sources. Although there is a change that is presumed to happen
because those annoying bombarding adverts on TV are being more and more proved to
be useless and ineffective. Presumably we are looking to a brighter disturbing adfree
times as soon as the clients understand the changes and except them or agencies take
responsibility for their own creations. Funny enough this type of ‘annoying’ advertising was
found in the 60’s as well ‘Times’ wrote that ‘the average american is now exposed to
10,000 TV commercials a year. As the number increases so do admen’s worries about
‘overexposure’.’ Rosser Reeves (an ad man in 1960’s) was the antiChrist of aoying
adverts one was created on purposely to annoy people to the point they would get a
headache and the ad for Anacin was just that, obviously it worked because the sales
increased. So the same problem existed in both eras.
Cocacola has been always known for amazing advertising through centuries let’s take a
look how much better or maybe not the ad’s of the 50’s/ 60's/ 70’s and 21st century are and
have been and try to figure out when was the golden age of advertising thought this brand's
advertising companies . In the 1950’s Asa Candler (the time president of CocaCola
company) had an idea to promote coca cola as the drink for a break and refreshments that
applied really well for the target audience who were mainly everyone who were working to
rebuild the economy. ‘Work refreshed’ was the slogan for that company and at times it was
received successfully. They delivered the message well through a range of different
contexts.In the 60’s the times were overtaken by the vorries of the Vietnam war and Free
love period in which Coke contained the same message as in the 60’s though they
included some jingles “Things go better with Coke’. There were a lot of celebrities involved
in the campaign and it worked out on Coke’s favour and they celebrated another decade of
success. In the late 1969, Coke came up with the slogan "The Real Thing." To go along
with this slogan was a 1971 ad featuring a diverse group of young people.
The ad is recognized by many people. It was filmed on an Italian hillside, and all of the
people are singing a familiar songs: "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect
harmony/I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company."This ad held the ideals that
Coke ads from years before have held. It had a world appeal, and it associated Coke with
friendship.In 2013 Coka Cola once again hit the world with a paowerful compaign, simple
concept as sharing they turned into a massive obsession trough social media and real life
experiance proving that now more than ever the consumers involement in the action is
crutial. ‘Share a Coke’ campaign included the logo on the cans/bottles changed into
popular name, shaking up the world to share the bottle with the person that the name is on.
From the very launch of the campaign the acceptance was more than successful. The one
thing that Coke has never forgotten was the world appeal and the awareness of of events
in the world, that makes all of their advertising campaigns successful leaving us again with
the same question. When was the golden age, or maybe it never passed?
In 1960’s the cocacola company developed a new campaign and not only the campaign
was new but the advertising company as well, after 50 years of collaboration with A’Darcy
the cocacola company changed to McCannErickson. The new campaign was developed
and 1960’s became “Things Go Better with Coke”. For this campaign, there was a number
and quality of ads produced, and the number of top music stars involved. this time the
cocacola not only delivered the message through a range of different contexts but every
possible media for those times involving radio, TV, print and music production. Again big
hit for the company that even in those days used the best of what they had.
The upcoming generation might call the 21st century the golden age of advertising while we
think it was the 5070’s. There is no way to determine on which era was better in
advertising because they were all different technologically, economically and politically.
There apparently seems a consistency of ‘bad’ advertising through all the decades, the
problem of repetitive and disruptive advertising has existed in any age of advertising, even
more in the 21’s century because advertising has become more available than ever but
seemingly there is a change comin this way as Dan Wieden predicts, he also predicts the
return of great advertising which as is happening right now. There has been many theories
stating that different times of period was the ‘golden age’ of advertising many of which
were to believed to be the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s but many advertisers believe the ‘golden
age’ to be NOW. It is left for us to be the judges of when the golden age really was or is.As
a consideration I am going to quote ‘Midnight in Paris’ ‘Nostalgia is denial denial of the
painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking the erroneous notion that
a different time period is better than the one ones living in its a flaw in the romantic
imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.’
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