LECTURE NOTES:HISTORY OF ADVERTISING//OUGD401

HISTORY OF ADVERTISING:

• Bernbach - very influential agency in the 50s in New York called Doyle Dane Bernbach. 
• Bernbach was a philosopher, a scientist, a humanitarian,  influences went beyond advertising.
• example of his quote.

"Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it."
KEY POINTS OF HISTORY:
-context in which modern advertising emerged 
-aspects of advertising 
-the importance of soap
theme-intergratition of art and technology  ‘an area of art history neglected ... where art and technology meet’ (Elton, 1968, pvii)
THE BEGINNING:

• Advertising, The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Clothes On! (R4, 2009)
• Robin Wight (WCRS)118 118 & The future’s bright, the future’s orange.
• William Hesketh Lever, (1851-1925) Lever Bros
• Bill Bernbach (1911-1982) (DDB) first to combine copywriters and art directors 

SUNLIGHT VISION:
Lever Brothers founders James Darcy & William Hesketh Lever (1885).

build a gallery and open it up for the public. Port Sunlight 19c village commissioned by William Hesketh Lever - house his

soap factory workers. Centre- Lady Lever. 
LEVER BORN 1851
1851 GREAT EXHIBITION- colour printing not practiced until the 19th century 
photos and 3D technology - first time public saw this


ADVERTISING AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF ANY COMPETITIVE MARKET ECONOMY


PRE-PACKAGING

1860s cereal companies figured out how to print, fold & fill cardboard boxes mechanically.  -John & William Kellogg 

Soap was sold in long bars to grocers, who stamped and sliced up.  

THE FIRST TABLET OF SOAP:

ADDED BRAND VALUE THROUGH ADVERTISING

BOOM:

Advertising boom aided by abolishment of taxes on newspapers 1855 & paper in 1861

Press (newspapers) owes much to advertising

News of the world ended when advertisers pulled.

THE SECOND BOOM:

Technological progress reproduction & colour printing, pictorial ads in magazines 1880s

 By 1890s technology enabled contemporary paintings to be reproduced

Sunlight Soap Ad (1890s) 
advertising increased  


First Multinational 

Advertising transformed company from a local soap manufacturer in 1885 to one of the world's first multinationals
Largest corporation in Britain by 1930 ‘Colourful, innovative advertising was crucial to Lever’s success’
 What worked so well about this advertising?

The soap men’s extensive use of contemporary paintings in their advertising is a case in point. (Lewis, 2008, p65)

Used in Sunlight soap ad with copy ‘So Clean’ 

    

As good as new - emotive

Bride (peasant) trying wedding dress.

Leverhulme used for an advertisement poster 1889, As good as new

Implies dress worn by brides mother, passing down beauty secrets.

Emotional strategy

enhanced by naturalism of Newlyn school (Cornwall) 

First Creative Advertising

Encouraged consumers to collect vouchers and save for prints of the ads.

Selecting and presenting contemporary art works (RA) communicated more powerfully a desired message.
Message was told in an interesting and innovative way. 

‘Advertising, from the moment it was born, was trying to entertain us’ (Hegarty, 2011, p9) 

FIRST GLOBAL COMPANIES:

Medicine, chocolate and soap manufacturers
Sunlight Soap among the first products to feature in a global ad campaign. 


WRAPPER PROMOS:

-1890s Sunlight soap magazine ad
-1903 began a wrapper scheme, offering soap in return

-1904 offer a gramophone + records for 750 wrappers & rolled gold watch for 4,000 (Port Sunlight Museum, 2009) 

-One method beloved of advertisers ...was to capture the children. In 1890s, purchases of sunlight soap received free paper dolls with interchangeable outfits’ 

-Targeted mothers- ensuring a life long loyalty to the brand

INVESTING IN ADVERTISING

-Lever spent £2m first two decades of making soap.
-1899 Lever purchased a Philadelphia soap firm – owner Sidney Gross became a director.
-‘Gross was expert at picking the right artist for advertisements’ (Lewis, 2008)


TARGET AUDIENCES:

-Copy in Sunlight soap ads spoke directly to working-class housewives.

- Salvation of Sunlight, improves their life, leaving quality-time for romance.

- Sunlight Almanac (annually) 1895-1900)

- Woman’s World 470p illustrated book

- High-feeling/emotive strategy -Lewis (2008) 

WORLD DOMINATION:

-20c Lever used different international agencies.
-Domestic and imperial markets Britishness suited all.
- Royal connections, national and imperial imagery
- Context of thousands of ads trading on Britannia, Where the British flag flies, Dunlop Tyres are paramount’ 

The successful global campaign

- Lever’s achievement

 ‘to convince people all over the world that they did not just want this product, they needed it’ 

THE LYNX EFFECT:

“The message was clear, if one wished to gain or retain a partner, a job, a reputation and self esteem, one needed to attend to personal hygiene...sales skyrocketed” (Lewis, 2008, p81)
-High-feeling strategy 

    

Psychology of Advertising

Advertisers, more than any other group of people, made hay with new understandings of human psychology in the twentieth century 

ROLES OF ADVERTISING:

Fundamentals of honest business, will continue to advance humanity to brotherhood...honesty in advertising ...is a cardinal principle in your country and in mine...the advertiser...is building for those who follow after him. It should be the same with nations’ 

SUMMARY:

- This history Wight (R4)- library, So Clean Lewis (2008) Sunlight Vision and Alice in Wonderland exhibitions. Focus on the beginning.
- Included historical, political, economic and technological contexts which enabled Lever’s modern advertising to emerge.
- Colour printing and reproduction technological developments 19c.
- Creative advertising strategy, art and copy.
- Advertising principles truth and entertainment.
- The importance of advertising to an economy, soap to imperialism.
-Social Media and Communication, impact of New Media on advertising and creativity.