The Evolution of Marketing
Ah, vintage ads, how you tickle my feminist bones. But looking at the ads (like this Schlitz beer one that has noooot aged well) made me think of an interesting question. That is; how has advertising changed throughout the years? Overtly sexist overtones aside, the real answer is... Not much.
Why? Because throughout the history of marketing, brands have always tapped in to whatever key demographic they believed would buy the most of their product and drive sales, via whatever form of media is available at the time. End of. The ad in question here is nothing more than a — rather unfortunate — sign of the times. One in which men were overwhelmingly labeled the “bread-winners” while women were largely relegated to the kitchen.
In fact, EVERY ad is reflective of their time, to the nth degree. If you want to test this yourself, point to any ad from the past 80 or so years. Pay attention to the dress, the lingo, the perceived target audience, heck even the font. Based on all these context clues, my guess is that you can probably pinpoint the exact decade that ad originated.
It's a tale as old as time. Well, at least as old as ancient Egypt, where ads are believed to have originated in steel carvings. Shoot, maybe even neanderthal cave paintings were actually the earliest form of marketing. "Fire good. Come see fire. I show you, you give arrow." Boom, world's first sale transaction.
So, in short, no, marketing has not really changed throughout the years — consumers have. Perhaps even more importantly, the methods by which consumers consume have also changed. We now have more than television and newspapers. We've got the internet. We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and countless other form of social media. There’s literally an entire world of knowledge right at our fingertips and we’re more connected than ever before. As a result, the population has grown savvier, wiser. They’ve expanded, expectations have shifted, trends have come and gone, and ads simply evolve to match.
Our job as copywriters/marketers is (and always has been for that matter) to keep up with the populace, match their enthusiasm via whatever forms of media necessary, and maybe, just maybe, rise above when we can.
~J.B.
