I have a vague but persistent memory from about forty years ago. It was a commercial with a song―too pompous to accept the designation "jingle"―whose lyrics went something like "You're the first to come in in the morning/The last to leave at night." I think it might have been a beer commercial, in which case it could have been a tribute to those hearty executives who clock in at 7:30, already buzzed.
But I feel like that marked a turning point in the culture. Advertising up until that point had mostly focused on the question of "What can we do for you?" The "you" was conceptualized as a general man in the street, or woman, depending on the product.
But then the "you" started becoming more specified, and more grandiose. If you were watching a commercial for a running shoe, you had to be an elite athlete. If it was a car ad, you had to have the most important places to go. How much of this was actually true? Well, the business was never about truth. But it's weird, the extent to which one of the products you were now expected to buy was yourself.
2 comments:
You remember correctly that advertising was decidedly more benevolent 50 years ago as was much else in our culture. Not that it hasn't always been something of a racket since radio ads weren't always completely honest either but things felt far more humane as regards the way we were addressed as rational beings.
Advertising has changed and intensified depending on the media. Once it was radio and print, then tv advertising came along and the others dropped back as far as revenue was concerned. As the internet gained popularity and web channels became ever more numerous the ad campaigns made their appeals to groups through popular culture connections while older ads had enticed customers based on brand superiority and the senses.
Yes, it's true that even more weird is that if you've spent any time looking at youtube, twitter, instagram or tiktok it appears that by selling yourself to others like yourself you have become the product: 'Here's a picture of my lunch'.
Ah well, although they aired more than 50 years ago, we still have fond memories of Red Skelton's - House of Windsor cigar commercials.
https://youtu.be/Ag0TOo6C45k?si=gc49Z10xqVx9jFri
There's always been an element of manipulation and/or deception to advertising. By definition its purpose is to build demand for things, which you don't really do by giving a truthful account of their positives and negatives. What's changed, I think, is how intrusive the medium has become.
You're right that advertising has changed in order to exploit different media as they've come along. The very earliest TV commercials essentially reproduced radio spots and added pictures. Within a few years they had started to intensify the way they put the message across. With the dawn of the internet and social media they've had to appeal to fractured attention spans.
Instagram and TikTok, among others, would have been considered bizarre in any previous social context. While you still hear about paparazzi now and again, it's crazy how many people--famous or not--are eager to violate their own privacy.
Those Red Skelton spots are a peek into a world that is no more, in style as well as the fact that you can't advertise tobacco products anymore. "I specialize in previously owned cigars." Hmm.
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