TY - JOUR
AU - Laird, Pamela Walker
AB - Advertising has a long history. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of advertising from ancient Rome and Pompeii in the form of painted signs on the walls of buildings. In the Middle Ages, shopkeepers drew attention with hanging signs that displayed an emblem of their respective trades, while street criers and peddlers promoted their wares with combinations of chants, rhymes, humor, and exaggerated speech (1). Most of us are familiar with the image of the patent-medicine “doctor” peddling his life-healing nostrums from the back of a horse-drawn wagon covered with signs. In all of those cases, the advertising messages originated with the businesspeople who had something to sell. Today, advertisements come into our lives and homes in more ways than ever, and they are almost always created and produced by professional advertising specialists. Advertisements appear in a multitude of media including television, radio, cinema, billboards, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. They appear on public benches, on the sides of buses, on the seats of shopping carts, and on airborne banners flown above otherwise peaceful beaches. Animated characters promising to tickle our taste buds, entertain us, or make us stylish and happy, regularly commandeer our computer screens. Like it or not, advertising touches our lives daily. In particular, much advertising is targeted to the young, who tend to embrace its messages readily. It is uncanny how students can recall the slightest nuances of an ad and every word of a jingle, even if they cannot remember their schoolwork. Because advertisements are integral parts of our students' world— commercial communications with which they are familiar and comfortable—they can serve as ideal tools for teaching and interpreting history as it relates to the rise of big business. National Standards Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870–1900) Standard 1: How the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming transformed the American people. Historical Thinking Standard 1: Chronological Thinking Historical Thinking Standard 2: Historical Comprehension Historical Thinking Standard 3: Historical Research Capabilities Time Frame Two fifty-minute class periods. Objectives To interpret primary source material. To demonstrate the changes—and the impact of those changes—brought about by the rise of large corporations. To engage the students in the actual “doing of history” by searching out and analyzing advertisements using printed sources and the Internet. To guide students toward understanding that advertisements tell us more about their creators than they tell us about their audiences. Background and Preparation This lesson will examine advertisements dating from the 1880 s into the 1920 s, a period when the nature of business in America changed dramatically. Earlier on, almost all businesses were small and were owned and managed in a traditional entrepreneurial style. Individual owners wielded direct personal authority over the organization and operation of their companies. Such owner-managers had total control over the practices and styles of advertising they sent out into the world. In the 1890 s and the first years of the twentieth century, however, thousands of small firms merged to form corporations owned by stockholders and managed by people unrelated to the original owners. One result of this shift was that corporations' advertisements took on different appearances and message styles from those previously produced by the traditional entrepreneur. Students will search out and analyze ads to demonstrate that fundamental shift. As Mansel Blackford's essay in this issue explains, the rise of large corporations in America was swift and evident to everyone. While the 1850 s had experienced incorporation only on a modest scale, just fifty years later three hundred industrial corporations controlled more than two-fifths of the manufacturing in the country. By 1929, the two hundred largest corporations held 48 percent of all corporate assets (2). The whole of American society was affected by this shift. Corporate communications replaced many of the traditional family- and community-based sources of information and values about what, how, and why to consume, providing a more tightly structured information system dominated by commercial goals and conveyed by commercial media. The transition from artisan shop to factory left workers, who once had personal relationships with their employers and pride in the products they made, with a sense of alienation and uncertainty, at the same time that their skills lost value (3). Increasingly, people came to judge themselves and others according to their abilities to consume, rather than to produce (4). As early as 1900, advertisements for manufactured goods had come to set many standards for what people should buy, contributing to what we now call a “consumer culture.” Within the newly formed corporations themselves, sheer size demanded changes in internal structure and operation. Even if an original owner survived consolidation, he generally became but one of many stockholders and managers. The sense of personal identity and worth that owners once had tied up in the operation and reputation of their companies declined. Instead, specialists in various aspects of management, including marketing, came to operate corporations. A famous example of this specialization in action resulted from the 1898 consolidation of 114 cracker and cookie bakeries across the United States into the National Biscuit Company (now NABISCO). As the National Biscuit Company's managers started marketing products that were no longer known either by a founder's name, such as the S. S. Marvin Co., or by a regional name, such as the New York Biscuit Company, they recognized a heightened need to build consumer trust and demand. They also understood the importance of associating that trust and demand with a trademark or brand name. The National Biscuit Company managers decided to introduce a greatly improved cracker through an innovative promotional campaign that would set a new standard for size and complexity. They realized that they needed expert assistance to make this campaign work and recruited a leading advertising agency, N. W. Ayer & Son, to guide them and to generate most of the creative materials, such as ad copy and pictures. Working together, managers and ad specialists developed everything from a novel name, Uneeda Biscuit, to package design and ad copy, plus a strategic plan for timing the gradual release of an initial series of ads in newspapers, billboards, street cars, and store displays. (See cover image of this issue for an example.) The name, Uneeda Biscuit, was highly unusual at that time in that it did not say anything about the product or its quality; it described neither the producer nor anything about the cracker itself. Instead, it aimed attention directly to consumers, saying that they “needed” this cracker. The campaign was so successful that the National Biscuit Company had to build additional factories to meet demand across the country (5). Procedures: Day One Equipped with the knowledge that one of the key changes brought about by the rise of large corporations was loss of the producers' personal identification with the products—for workers and owners alike—the stu dents are ready to participate in the following teacher-guided exercise that deepens their understanding of that point. Advise students that they will now analyze two advertisements, one from an earlier era (1880 s) and one from a later era (1920 s). They will examine each advertisement, carefully searching for evidence that supports the shift away from an ethos that valued production to one that values consumption, as described above. Distribute two “Analyzing Primary Sources: How to Interpret an Advertisement” worksheets to each student or pair of students. (NOTE: The two advertisements appear as illustrations on pp. 43–44. Along with the “Analyzing Primary Sources” worksheet, they are also available online athttp://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/v24n1.) Display the advertisement for the Estey Organ Company, circa 1885 (Figure 1), with overhead or PowerPoint, and distribute paper copies for closer examination. Ask students to study the advertisement carefully and to complete one worksheet to the best of their ability. Upon completion, go over the worksheets with the students. They will be quick to recognize that the product being advertised is an organ. Next, ask the students to provide a list of those people, objects, and activities they observed in advertisement. The most striking image is the large factory scene, with much activity around it as it produces organs, as evidenced by the smoke spewing from its chimney. Other objects consist of the elegant fixtures of a room in the lower left vignette, including the portrait of an elderly gentleman over the organ. The people whom students will notice include those in that vignette: an elaborately dressed group listening to a woman playing an organ, as well as a little boy and girl looking out the window at the same factory that is the main scene. Other people in the ad include those in the three portraits in the opposite corner. Students will note that there is limited text aside from the name of the product, the location of the factory, and the date of the company's founding. The only verbal sales pitch is the description of the factory (not the product!) as “The Most Extensive in the World.” At this juncture the teacher should provide additional essential information. This advertisement was created somewhere around 1885 before incorporation was in full swing. That means that the owner and founder of the company, Mr. Jacob Estey, most likely took an active part in creating this advertisement. In fact, it is his portrait over the organ and in between the other two businessmen. The room scene pictures the inside either of his home or that of someone in his family; the little children are probably his grandchildren. Most important of all, the factory featured in both the central scene and revealed through the window—busily producing the organs that Mr. Estey thought helped families participate in material and social progress—is also his. This style of ad is very personal in nature and was quite common during its day. Owners usually named their businesses after themselves and used their portraits as trademarks and in advertising. They also used images of their places of business in advertising, portraying them in a grand and solid manner, in an effort to convey a sense of their contributions to progress and prosperity. The opulence of the home and Mr. Estey's apparently flawless family symbolize his character and integrity, implying a connection between the quality of the family and the quality of the product. Such an elaborate personal testament to Estey's success should certainly make one secure in buying a Estey Organ, shouldn't it? What does the advertisement offer a potential consumer? Ask students if the ad tells them anything about the people who saw it. For comparison, we will next examine a second advertisement (Figure 2). Display, either via overhead or PowerPoint, the advertisement for Listerine, and distribute paper copies for closer examination. Ask students to study the advertisement carefully and to complete the Primary Source Analysis Worksheet to the best of their ability (the teacher may allow students to work in pairs). As they go about their analysis, students should be thinking about how the two advertisements differ from one another. Upon completion, go over worksheets with students. Most will accurately identify the product being advertised as Listerine Mouthwash. Next, ask the students to provide a list of the people, objects, and activities they observed in the advertisement. People will include the woman, thirty-year-old Edna. Objects will include a hope chest and an article from her wedding trousseau (many may be unfamiliar with both items). The students will add that Edna is kneeling over her hope chest, garment in hand with an anxious look on her face. Students will note that the text is far lengthier than the previous advertisement. Poor Edna has yet to marry (her primary goal in life) because she has halitosis, or bad breath. The ad promises that Listerine Mouthwash will solve her problem. At this juncture the teacher should provide additional essential information. This advertisement was created in the twentieth century after World War I, when large corporations had come to dominate the world of business. So what is so different? Students will notice that this ad offers no personal information about the company's owner. That is quite understandable because Listerine's manufacturer was Lambert Pharmacal Company of St. Louis, Missouri, which had be-come a corporation by then, owned by multiple stockholders (6). Corporate advertising by that era had become the work of either specialized in-house advertising departments, outside advertising agencies, or a combination of both. These experts had to justify their work and, therefore, their fees, so they opposed the older practices of emblazing advertisers' names, their children's portraits, or their factories' pictures across their advertisements. These advertising experts held new views regarding the effectiveness of advertising. They largely believed that corporations should communicate with the public by creating ads that caught the buyer's eye and heart instead of the seller's. As one advertising agent advised his clients in 1920, “It is not by his own taste, but by the taste of the fish, that the angler determines his choice of bait” (7). Unlike the earlier ad, the visual in this advertisement could be that of the potential customer herself. What does the advertisement offer a potential consumer? Ask students if this ad tells them anything about the people who saw it. View largeDownload slide Abundance for sale! At a time when many Americans still preserved their own food, and fruit was a luxury for city dwellers, industrialized processors pledged flavorful selections. Their ads, like this trade card by Thurber & Co., c. 1880, often featured fanciful images of children relishing oversized treats. The back of this trade card pitched effciency and safety to mothers. (Courtesy of Library of Congress) View largeDownload slide Abundance for sale! At a time when many Americans still preserved their own food, and fruit was a luxury for city dwellers, industrialized processors pledged flavorful selections. Their ads, like this trade card by Thurber & Co., c. 1880, often featured fanciful images of children relishing oversized treats. The back of this trade card pitched effciency and safety to mothers. (Courtesy of Library of Congress) View largeDownload slide Manufacturers who owned and operated their own firms in the nineteenth century took great pride in them. Their ads often featured their factories prominently. They also displayed the contributions to social and cultural progress that they believed their products made. That certainly was what Jacob Estey had in mind with this large chromolithograph poster, c. 1885. (Private collection.) View largeDownload slide Manufacturers who owned and operated their own firms in the nineteenth century took great pride in them. Their ads often featured their factories prominently. They also displayed the contributions to social and cultural progress that they believed their products made. That certainly was what Jacob Estey had in mind with this large chromolithograph poster, c. 1885. (Private collection.) Procedures: Day Two 1. Students are now ready to attempt an analysis on their own (or in pairs). Equipped with books, old magazines, or computers with access to the Internet, they will locate another pair of advertisements: one ad before the transitions described above and another ad after. The “after” ad could even be a recent ad, as the principles behind most post-1920 advertisements have remained quite constant. 2. Older public libraries often have popular magazines readily available that go back into the early 1900 s, or even before, such as the Ladies' Home Journal. 3. Library books that picture old advertisements could be one type of source, such as books on trade cards, vintage posters, circus posters, and product histories. Examples of such books include: Larry Freeman, Victorian Posters (Watkins Glen, N.Y.: The American Life Foundation, 1969). Robert Jay, The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1987). Victor Margolin, Ira Brichta, and Vivian Brichta, The Promise and the Product: 200 Years of American Advertising Posters (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, 1979). Julian Lewis Watkins, The 100 Greatest Advertisements: Who Wrote Them and What They Did (New York: Dover Publications, 1949, plus many later editions). Here are some web sites that students can use to locate vintage advertisements online: Victorian Trade Cards Digital Collection at the Iowa Digital Library, University of Iowa:http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/tradecards/ Victorian Trade Card Collection at Miami University Libraries:http://doyle.lib.muohio.edu/cdm4/tradecards/ Memorial to Roland Marchand Slide Library at the University of California, Davis:http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/ic/collection/marchand/Advertising/ Ad*Access at tshe Digital Scriptorium, Duke University:http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/ Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850–1920 at the Digital Scriptorium, Duke University:http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa/ Assessment The worksheets for “Analyzing Primary Sources” provide one means of assessment. Teachers can evaluate the filled-in worksheets according to how many relevant differences students observed between the two ads in each pair they studied and how well the differences they found demonstrate the points of the lesson. Another assessment option would ask students, possibly in pairs or small groups, to pick a single type of product and to design ads for it in “before” and “after” styles, that is, one in the traditional owner/manager style and one in the corporate style. Teachers can also ask students to free write a paragraph or two about how they think that the shift in promotional styles affects their lives, now that they, their parents, and even their grandparents all have lived surrounded by this intense competition for their attention and their consumer dollars. This could tie in well with the lesson plans by Vicki Howard on commercialized wedding practices and Mark Rose on domestic technologies. Endnotes 1. Laird Pamela Walker. ,  Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing ,  1998 Baltimore The Johns Hopkins University Presspg.  13  2. Trachtenberg Alan. ,  The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age ,  1982 New York Hill and Wangpg.  4  3. Johnson Paul E.. ,  A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815–1837 ,  1978 New York Hill and Wang  Of the many fine books on this subject two especially helpful ones explain the process at the opposite ends of the century Robert H. Wiebe, The Search For Order, 1877–1920 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1968). 4. Glickman Lawrence B.. ,  A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society ,  1997 Ithaca Cornell University Press  Among the many excellent books on this transition, one of the best is 5. “Biscuit” was the traditional name for what we now call a cracker. Laird, Advertising Progress, 204, 244, 282–83. See also chapters 6, 7, and 8. 6. This was the correct spelling of the firm's name at that time. 7. Laird, Advertising Progress, 258, 269. Figures and Tables View largeDownload slide This magazine advertisement for Listerine, c. 1923, initiated a decades-long campaign aimed at fostering consumers' anxieties. In particular, this ad focused on personal failings that consumers could not detect themselves, but that could place both social and professional success at risk. (Private collection) View largeDownload slide This magazine advertisement for Listerine, c. 1923, initiated a decades-long campaign aimed at fostering consumers' anxieties. In particular, this ad focused on personal failings that consumers could not detect themselves, but that could place both social and professional success at risk. (Private collection) Copyright © Organization of American Historians
TI - Advertising and the Rise of Big Business
JF - OAH Magazine of History
DO - 10.1093/maghis/24.1.41
DA - 2010-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/advertising-and-the-rise-of-big-business-dClDfvbamA
SP - 41
EP - 46
VL - 24
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -