A history of Advertising // 1st February 2012
A history of Advertising // 1st February 2012
- There are many different histories relating to Advertising, however this is just one.
- In the beginnings of advertising large scale colour printing technologies developed (around 19th century)
- This led to the soap adverts for the Lever brothers: These adverts and their strategies initiated by Lever point towards creative advertising giants, Bernbach (DDB) and Hegarty (BBH)
- Bernbach founded an advertising agency in New York
- Bill Bernbach is often considered as the beginnings of Creative Advertising
- Robin Wight, William Lever and Bill Bernbach; 'Advertising, the most fun you can have with your clothes on!' R4, 2009
- Lever Brothers founders were James Darcy and William Hesketh Lever in 1885. 'The most expensive real estate is the corners of somebody's mind' Hegarty, 2009. Lever was one of the richest men of his day, he built his own village and gallery.
- The great exhibition 1851 brought with it large scale colour printing. This was to deal with extra demand for promotional advertising. The 1880's was the first time colourful adverts were published in magazines. In the 1860's technological advances allowed for products to be pre-packaged. This affected the soap industry dramatically, packing now added brand value to a product; this brought with it a boom in advertising for this era.
- The progression of printing technology in the 1880s allowed for colour printing in newspapers and magazines, this allowed for paintings to be reproduced.
- Lever took advantage of the new methods to take a small soap company in 1885 and make it the largest corporation in britain by 1930.
- Lever foten copied other artists or used aspects of their work within his own.
- Lever changed the meaning of 'Vanity's a vanity'
- The use of children and white linen in washing advertisements symbolises purity, blessing, life, innocence and is very much linked to advertising today as we still use these as current symbolisms
- Children in adverts during the late 1800 was a sign of the high infant mortality rate, this made children popular in painting and drawing of the time.
- The colour images will have provided a spectacle to the masses, as colour printing was still uncommon in these days.
- He used realistic paintings in his adverts, he liked this style as it allowed the audience to connect with the subjects.
- Lever was the first to use product placement as a method of advertising. Lever brothers were the first to organise advertising events, these events were made with the aim to have people/consumers associate fun and good times with Lever's products.
- He aimed his advertising at children. tactic used by McDonalds.
- He democratised the products, breaking down the soap class barrier. He offered a buy and reward scheme/collection scheme, used by dairy milk.
- Lever started buying up a lot of soap companies across the world, Sidney Gross the owner of a company Lever bought became an art director. He was an expert in choosing the right artist for the adverts.
- Today Unilever owns over 900 brands; Ben&Jerry's, Bertoli, Bird's Eye, Brooke Bond, Comfort, Lux, Persil, Sunsilk, Sunlight, Surf, Dove
- Ubiquitous brand; part of the average consumer 'mental furniture' Lewis
- 'Most expensive real estate is the corners of somebody's mind' Hegarty 2009
- First british Tycoon; to build a gallery and open it up for the public. Port Sunlight (§9th Century) village commissioned by William Hesketh Lever to house his soap factory workers. Centre: Lady Lever
- The empire state;
- 'An essential component of any competitive market economy; ddriving growth and ddynamism' Hegarty 2011
- 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 (with stamp of maker) and sliced up.
- 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 - Technological progress reproduction & colour printing, pictorial ads in magazines 1880s
- By 1890s technology enabled contemporary paintings to be reproduced
- Sunlight Soap Ad (1890s) www.advertisingarchives.co.uk
- International exhibition. Prompted large-scale colour printing.
- Ad boom fuelled by tax reliefs in 1850s & 60s.
- Pre-packaging technology 1860s
- Co. founder Lever Bros
- '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)
Selecting and presenting contemporary art works (RA) communicated more powerfully a desired message.
Message was told in an interesting and innovative way.
Imagery provided a spectacle and entertainment.
By adding simple endlines, Lever managed to change the meaning of images to his advantage.
Distinct from other advertising that had gone before.
Encouraged consumers to collect vouchers and save for prints of the ads.
- AXE anarchy: the graphic novel
open narrative, entertaining, creative communication
- Cracknell (2011) late 19c advertising agencies sold space in newspapers commission/negotiations.
- Client created content. Changed with publications (US) Rowell American Newspaper dictionary (UK) followed– fixed rates to clients.
- Agencies started to offer creative services 20c model
- Medicine, chocolate and soap manufacturers were among the foremost advertisers (Lewis, 2008, p65)
- Sunlight Soap among the first products to feature in a global ad campaign.
- The queen of soaps: Royal endorsement from 1892 ‘soap makers to Queen Vic.
- Democratisation
- 'Queens will have only the best…sunlight soap is so cheap, everybody can afford to use it’
- Wrapper Promos; 1890s Sunlight soap magazine ad www.advertisingarchives.co.uk
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)
- Capture the Children;
One method beloved of advertisers ...was to capture the children. In 1890s, purchases of sunlight soap received free paper dolls with
interchangeable outfits’ (Lewis, 2008, p67)
Schemes for Lifebuoy soap coupons for encyclopaedias.
- 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,p69)
- Art Direction;
Gross suggested plantol should depict tropical climates & express the care that is exercised in refining oils.
A vision to disguise the forced slavery?
Palm oil was one of the main ingredients (pure vegetable soap)
- First Worldwide ECD;
Collaborative creativity
Lever employed (international) expertise
Overseer of advertising
Constantly researching & studying the art form
Sent examples of (American) adverts across the company (colour magazine) creating discussion.
Journals, web blogs & Cop
- First Ambient;
Innovative spaces, doors left open at stations.
Choosey, where advertised, avoided left-wing newspapers,
‘firm known by...quality of medium in which it advertises’ (Lewis, 2008, p71)
- Ad Expertise;
Lever amassed and was among innovators of advertising expertise
Advocated truth in advertising is an asset; falsehood in advertising is a liability. Lewis (2008)
(Hegarty, 2009)
- Salvation with Sunlight:
Many of his early ads emphasised that Sunlight soap would save women from drudgery' (Lewis, 2008, p74)
Answer: washing day toil, solution; Sunlight soap.
Copy: a girl of 12 or 13 can do a large wash without being tired.
Ease a repeated theme
- Target Audience:
Copy in Sunlight soap ads spoke directly to working-class housewives.
Sunlight Almanac (annually) 1895-1900)
Salvation of Sunlight, improves their life, leaving quality-time for romance.
Woman’s World 470p illustrated book
High-feeling/emotive strategy
Lewis (2008)
- Examples 1893;
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
“home is to be the very dearest spot on earth, if the mother or wife brightens it with the sunlight of her cheerful smile…when things go right in
the kitchen and laundry…the good housewife’s face is lit up” (Lewis, 2008, p77)
‘Another talked of a mother’s special responsibilities in the transmission of knowledge to her daughter…before her daughter is about… to be
married’
(Lewis, 2008, p77)
- 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’(1902) (Lewis, 2008, p78)
- Imperial missions;
To civilize
No commodity aided more this than soap.
Wash and clothe the native and cleanse the great unwashed of British working classes.
In Britain advertising posters, packaging brought to a wide audience the notion of imperialism as benign (Lewis, 2008, p79)
Empire was celebrated on biscuits, cigarettes, soap, chocolate: part of the working class fabric.
- 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 (Lewis,
2008, p81)
The Psychology of Advertising (1908) US, Walter Dill Scott
Edward Berneys, nephew of Freud Propaganda (1928)
Discrepancy theory – widespread
- Discrepancy Theory;
Discrepancy between self & ideal image of self.
Publics leisure practices, bathing habits etc. were inferior to those depicted.
Lever Bros Lux ads by mid 20s said to preserve ‘soft, youthful lovely feminine hands’ + celebrity endorsement
‘nine out of ten screen stars care for their skin with Lux soap’ (Lewis, 2008)
- Soap and Aesthetics;
P & G promotions: held sculpture event at gallery for children.
Berneys wrote about it as a fine example, harnessing psychological motives, aesthetic, competitive maternal exhibitionist
Strategy informed by sound psychology and enlightened self-interest (Lewis, 2008, p84)
- Unilever;
Sponsor annual contemporary artist, Turbine hall Tate Modern
Oct 11 - March 2012
FILM is an 11-minute silent 35mm film projected onto a gigantic white monolith standing 13m.
First work in series devoted to the moving image, and celebrates analogue film-making.
- Critics of Admass;
Boom in consumption
Highly criticised in interwar years ‘countless critics on the left – appalled by products of capitalism and mechanisation
‘People degenerated into drones: docile bodies or blind mouths etc…unable to think beyond free market capitalism’ (Lewis, 2008, p84)
- Admass Advocates;
Economic liberals, celebrated unfettered agency of the consuming individual.
Good trade relations between countries reduces conflict.
Capitalism, commerce and consumption improves well being of population (Lewis, 2008).
- Role 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’
Leverhulme NY (1923)
To Summarise...
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.
