Advertising Techniques Used In The 1950s

Semester 1, 2012

Comparison of Advertising Techniques of American TV
Commercials of the 1950s and Today

The 1950s in America were the “Golden Age of Television” (‘The Golden Age of
Television’, 2009). After the Second World War ended, all the money people had saved over the last four years was just waiting to be spent. The result was 50 million television sets by
1960 in the United States (Miller and Novak, 1977, p.344). The 1950s were a decade of economic optimism which resulted in greater materialism and consumerism than ever before.
Advertisers did not fail to notice the possibilities that lay in this mentality, and immediately made the step from radio to television advertising (Oakley, 1990, p.230). As a result of the
skilful
This essay will analyse the different techniques advertisers used in the 1950s and still use today to persuade consumers to buy their products. It will do so by firstly analysing the impact of advertising on the different societies of the 1950s and today, and secondly, comparing two different commercials of the 1950s with two different contemporary advertisements. This essay will show that TV commercials have changed since the 1950s in terms of language and style, while remaining the same in terms of their suggestive impact on the audience. The associations advertisers implant into their adverts, which are primarily the prospect of happiness, family, friends and love, still constitute the most powerful weapon advertisers can hide in their commercials.

The 1950s were a decade of economic optimism and people shared the feeling of being one united affluent society, so that they bought nearly everything that claimed to increase the level of convenience and luxury of people’s lives (Oakley, 1990, p.230). After the end of World
War II, the American economy flourished. During the War, people were anxious about
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This essay has shown how advertisers adapted their advertising techniques to the changing audiences of different decades. Concerning the underlying appeals, however, advertisers often did not have to change anything as people’s desire for a happy and loving social life are today as relevant as more than half a century ago. At first glance, commercials changed very much.
The two commercials of the 1950s that were analysed in this essay rely on appealing images and various stylistic devices in terms of language. The contemporary commercials, on the other hand, work predominantly only with images creating positive assumptions, which might be supported by the use of humour. The language and its functions retreat into the background. Yet, commercials from the beginning of television advertising until today all sell promises (Packard, 1970, p.15). Even though many critics argue that commercials today are not as effective as they used to be, most agree that people still are not able to fully escape the unconscious connotations the ads create. In the next decades internet advertising and ecommerce are likely to lead to a loss of significance of TV commercials (Cappo, 2003,