Early American Advertising

An outburst in growth of America’s big city population, places of 100,000 people or more jumped from about 6 million to 14 million between 1880 and 1900, cities had become a world of newcomers (551). America evolved into a land of factories, corporate enterprise, and industrial worker and, the surge in immigration supplied their workers. In the latter half of the 19th century, continued industrialization and urbanization sparked an increasing demand for a larger and cheaper labor force. The country's transformation from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation attracted immigrants worldwide. As free land and free labor disappeared and as capitalists dominated the economy, dramatic social, political, and economic

As a nation coming out of a devastating war, America faced many changes in the 1920s. It was a decade of growth and improvements. As immigrants fled from Europe, the economy improved, and new machines offered convenience and luxury from the kitchen to the streets. However, with all change comes opposition. The 1920s revealed a conflict between traditional America and the new attitude and lifestyle through the changing role of women, continued dominance of Christian values, and racism.

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the

Multimodal text plays a huge role in the entertainment industry, but how they promote and influence audiences to buy their products depends highly on how they present their advertisement. In the famous Old Spice commercial many rhetorical appeals are used, and although this advertisement little to realistically describes the product they are advertising, It's clever and subtle use of all three appeals, pathos, logos, and ethos, persuaded many people to switch to Old Spice and at the same time helped Old Spice reach its target audience, which is men.

Advertisements are made especially to grab the viewer's attention in any way possible. Many companies use images to try and trigger their viewers emotions or facts to attempt to establish credibility and get consumers to purchase their product or to grasp the message they are trying to get across. Companies like Budweiser and Kleenex achieve their advertising goals by using ethos, pathos, and logos.

Advertising in the 1950’s, at first glance, can be described as sexist; however, with a deeper understanding of the assumed gender roles of the decade, it is discovered that advertising was pushing established boundaries, especially that of women’s portrayal in ads. Advertising in the 1950’s was drastically different compared to today’s advertising norms. Ads in the 1950’s, under today’s values, are mostly interpreted as purely sexist. However, a deeper understanding of the decade and society can reveal how ads were even boundary pushing. While these ads may not be successful in today’s society, a simple comparison to today’s advertising can show how society’s values have shifted to accommodate different gender roles.

     With the spread of the Industrial Revolution, America became increasingly urbanized, with the urban population surpassing the

Urbanization in the United States in the late nineteenth century resulted from a number of factors, in particular the rise of commercial activity following the Civil War and the industrialization of the period. During that post-bellum period, cities grew along with a rising population of those residing in the cities. Although those two factors might, at first, appear to be the same, they are, in fact, different. In one early study from immediately after the period (Jefferson, 1915), scholars observed that American cities grew by about 15 million people in the two decades before 1900. Immigration from other countries certainly featured significantly in that growth, but the industrial revolution also played a significant role (Schultz, 2013,

Advertising was done through pamphlets and signboards. The pamphlets at this time explained goods and services that were available. Signboards normally contained symbols and address but not numbers (Applegate. 2012. P.4). It was in the eighteenth century is when advertising got its start in the media, by appearing in newspapers for the first time. In the beginning, advertisements were simple, “20% o the ads will be lists of goods offered for sale by local merchants and descriptions of books newly published. The point is that these are simple announcements essentially answering the reader’s tow questions-where and when? Does anyone in the community have thread for sale? Has anybody got any cheese? When will there be a ship going to Charleston? Apparently the thirst for this kind of advertising was enormous. The first paper had 10 columns of advertising in a paper of 16 columns” (Goodrum and Dalrymple. 1990. p. 13). At this time,

There are many different ads out that are trying to make us as humans look at ourselves and change. Anything from makeup to diet pills to liposuction, we are so focused on the material side of life that we don’t think about the real things. Ads are showing all over the world weather through internet, t.v. commercials, radio commercials, or even billboards they are showing us what the ideal human should look like. We focus so much on what we are “supposed” to look like we don’t understand the meaning of true

Not only signs do play an important role when it comes to advertising but also the way of representation including all the surroundings are essential to produce an advertisement that attracts the addressee. These surroundings usually involve the so called modes of communication which can be divided according to TV commercials into pictures, language and music. These modes are used to create the meaning of communication and their interplay is necessary to influence the outcome of the advertisement. (cf. Cook 2001:42)

Chandler writes, "Texts are full of indeterminacies which require the reader 's active interpretation. We must draw not only on our knowledge of language, but on our knowledge of the world." Thus, readers of advertisements bring with them a surface knowledge of the language as well as a set of preconceived ideas about how to relate the ad to them. Advertising work on a variety of different levels including, but not limited to sign typology, paradigmatic meaning, psychological appeals, emotion, roles, values/beliefs, and knowledge. The impact of an advertisement comes from the interplay between these various aspects of make-up and the reader 's own notions about them and the world.

The 1890s in America was a time of change for many Americans. Cities were starting to change rapidly due to industrial expansion and population growth.1 Many people felt the need to reinvent themselves to achieve a higher social status.2 This time period created a new generation of Americans who needed the instant gratification of material things without working for them.3 Through these actions, some Americans even began to discard traditional American mores and values that were once held so highly.

In a society where we are encouraged to purchase the top brands, the shiniest jewelry, and the best products on the market, companies have began to put themselves out there. One of the main ways they have attempted to accomplish this is through advertising. Advertisements can be found virtually anywhere ranging from the newspaper to TV commercials to billboards… The possibilities are endless. Competition in the advertising world is fierce as corporations do their best to persuade their audience to buy their product, convince consumers that their product is the best, and overall come out on top. One of the most effective advertising tools in