The History of Advertising - Essay Example

Introduction: We are now in a stage where the habit of mass consumption is threatening the very foundation of our existence. People are buying for the sake of buying and not out of any real need. They buy just for the satisfaction of owning a status symbol. They buy for the satisfaction of owning a new model say of a car or a mobile phone. They buy just because their bought a product. Of course, in between all this people do buy things of necessity like food and clothes. It would be pertinent to see how all this came about. From what was once a frugal habit where people were poor and bought only things that were necessary to live, a massive change in habits have taken place. There are many reasons for this like, culture, wealth, availability of credit and of course product promotion. This paper looks at these habits on the basis of an important chapter in the history of advertising. The advertising industry was shaken up by a man called William Bernbach. His most notable achievements were the ads produced by his company for the German automaker Volkswagen, soon after their introduction in the US. The work here will study some of the features of the module and its relation to the advertisements of Bernbach for Volkswagen. “Twenty-six years later, Bernbach's impact continues undiminished. And today he is recognized as No. 1 on Advertising Age's 20th century honour roll of advertising's most influential people.” (Bernbach 2008). William Bernbach and his colleague Ned Doyle and Maxwell Dane formed the advertising agency named Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) in 1949. This agency created the revolutionary ad campaigns for the 1950s and 1960s.The Volkswagen campaign was regarded as one of the best campaign because it increased the sales of the Volkswagen car. “This ad campaign established the Volkswagen brand as a marker for nonconformity.” (Miller 2004). Bernbach’s advertising strategy was to trey to keep customers rather than attracting the attention of those who were not interested in the product. Bernbach understood that an advertisement didn’t sell a product and he formulated innovative styles in printing the advertisements. Their idea was to give simplicity in print advertisements. These advertisements were entirely different from the familiar advertisements which gave importance to the American automobile’s powerful engines, and large size etc. The Volkswagen advertisements urged people to buy a car which they could drive cheaply. DDB’s advertisements were viewed as a radical attack on the orthodoxies of advertising industry because they attempted to “Volkswagen advertising is unique in the history of automobile advertising, if not all advertising. Its tone, style, wit, irreverence have been imitated, mimicked, swiped, copied, misunderstood, and admired more than any campaign before or since.” (Bill Bernbach Retrospective). The Doyle Dane Bernbach advertisements were considered as a major attack to the orthodoxies of advertising agencies because they tried to re-establish relationships with the unconvinced customers. The DDB’s advertisements communicate directly with the consumers by understanding their tastes and preferences. These advertisements proved to be really successful and helped them to achieve the goals. This increased the agency profits and also encouraged other advertising agencies to adopt new methods of advertisements. Citizenship and consumerism: The term citizenship to person would mean belonging to a country. He could be a citizen by being born there or by migration. But in reality, citizenship has a wider meaning than what is given above. The Merriam-Webster Online dictionary gives its meaning as “membership in a community.” (Citizenship). So, in effect a person can be a citizen of a community which could be social, political or based on personal preferences. The person could belong to a political party and hence become a citizen of that party along with citizenship of his country. This trend has now become more pronounced with the policies of direct participation by governments in many countries. Earlier, when governments exercised more control and had an active direct participation in the market, people identified with it and considered citizenship with the country only. But deregulation has bought about the existence of a lot of organizations that are privately and publicly owned. There also came about a host of organizations that were formed for causes like environmental protection and animal rights. People become members mainly due to personal preferences, and hence become citizens of that organization. Thus, this sort of citizenships has caused a change in the consumer habits of its members also. Greenpeace International, the world famous organization formed for protection of the environment and human rights is an example. People who are affiliated it do not buy products that are eco-unfriendly. Take the instance of music groups organizing concerts for the protection of the environment. Fans of the group or environmentally conscious individual could change their buying habits depending on the message that is conveyed by the band. “And Burgess describes new forms of cultural politics involving purchase: ‘the alliance between actors, musicians, Brazilian Indians, population music promoters, conservation organizations, the media industry and mainly young consumers who buy records to support the campaign against the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest.” (Isin 2000, P. 71). Bernbach was able to create a fan following for the car among both owners and non-owners. The ads he created were simple, honest and aimed at the cost conscious customer who did not want to compromise on quality. The company never really changed the shape of the car and people loved its cute design. Some of the catching words of the ad campaign were “the famous Italian designer suggested one change, Will we ever Kill the bug, 33 years later he got the bug and is the economy trying to tell you something.” (Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads). His campaigns for successful that Volkswagen became the first imported car to be successful in the USA.. His logic in creating an ad copy of TV campaign was to first understand how emotions between the customer and the product can be made use of. “Bernbach insisted on first learning how his client's products related to their users, what human qualities and emotions came into play.” (The Advertising Century. 2005). In effect, the ad campaign, the quality and shape of the car created a citizenship for the car that influenced their purchase of an automobile. Consumer culture: Consumer cultures vary across different countries and even across markets within a country. There are many factors that influence this culture. The economy, purchasing power, peer behaviour, availability of goods and credit, advertising etc are some factors that influence consumer culture. It can be seen that the once frugal habits of purchasing has now been replaced with mass consumption. People buy things whether they actually need it or not. It may be due to the impact of an advertisement or even for the sake of status. There is a general trend that consumer culture in the west leans very heavily towards mass consumption. In the United States, this culture of mass consumption was actually artificially created to offset the effects of the great depression of the late 1920’s and the aftermath of World War II. War efforts had created enormous production capacities for the country and a way out to make use of this was needed. Victor Lebow who was a retailing analyst stated that during that time had stated that Americans need to purchase in large quantities as a solution. The same viewpoint was taken up by people in the Government also. “President Eisenhower's council of economic advisors chairman stated: "The American economy's ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods." Not better health care, education, housing, transportation, or recreation or less poverty and hunger, but providing more stuff to consumers.” (Suzuki). This was compounded by the fact that people were starved of purchasing because of the war and they took it up with a vengeance. Cars were bought and replaced as soon as a new model was introduced. Certain products were able to give a certain identity to its owner and people purchased to be identified with it. For example, a motorcycle culture had developed and young people as soon as they were eligible to get a license would purchase it to be identified with that culture. This was the case with cigarettes too until tobacco ads were banned. The Marlborough cow boy ads had initiated a number of youngsters into the unhealthy practice of smoking. Berbach’s advertisements for Volkswagen were different in the sense that it ridiculed the advertising industry and the consumer culture existing in USA those days. It went so far as to ridicule the car itself in a cute sort of way. The names beetle and bug were given to the car and has stuck even to this day. “Most significantly, the ads made fun of the product, advertising, and the consumer culture. It was the ads that fist called the car a beetle, and said that station wagons looked like a shoebox. But it was the consumer culture itself that the ads aimed their sharpest barbs.” (Goodman and Ritzer (Ed.) 2003, P. 232). Catchy ad words like ‘think small’ were actually aimed at the American propensity for gas guzzling big cars. Such cars were a perfect example of the rampant consumerism that existed then. The big cars would be big on the outside and small inside. A popular model was the coupe intended for only two people and it had more engine power than it would ever need. It must be remembered that this was before the oil crisis and gas was extremely cheap in the USA. The result of this consumer culture was that American automobile manufacturers were severely hit when fuel efficient, smaller and well made Japanese cars came on the scene. It could concerted effort on the part of manufacturers to compete with the Japanese. But they have not yet recovered fully from the impact even to this day. A quality car like the Volkswagen and imaginative advertising could change the outlook of at least a certain section of the American public even before the entry of Japanese cars. Modernism and Postmodernism: The culture of any society is in constant flux and also keeps on evolving. Even though discernable changes are not noticeable constantly, there have been moments in past where a momentous change could be identified. The long journey up until the period of modernism and post modernism is given briefly here. Culture developed orally in the early days because the written word was not developed. Some of the prominent features of this period were that there were no written laws, no real concept of human rights and no currency. The next major change was during the renaissance period when science as a discipline came into existence. Then came the period known and restoration and enlightenment. Science came to play an important part during this period. The period during which the French revolution, industrial revolution, and the American Revolution occurred came to be known as the age of romanticism. Increasing literacy rates and urbanization were notable features during this period. This was followed by the Victorian period. It was the end of the Victorian period that is considered as the beginning of the concept of modernism. Even though the exact period when modernism starts is still under debate, a safe estimate would be from the late 1800’s and ends with second World War. This was also a period where many of the ‘isms’ that we see today originated. “This is the period that saw such revolutionary political movements as fascism, Nazism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Indeed, "isms" abound as various groups establish bold manifestos outlining their visions for an improved future. Manifestos about artistic form are just as widespread and, like the political manifestos, often radically different one from the next (eg. surrealism, dadaism, cubism, futurism, expressionism, existentialism, primitivism, minimalism, etc.).” (Felluga 2003). Marked changes with regard to art and culture is a feature of this period. New ways of representing art like cubism emerged. Changes in the way prose and poetry was used also occurred. “In the period of "high modernism," from around 1910 to 1930, the major figures of modernism literature helped radically to redefine what poetry and fiction could be and do: figures like Woolf, Joyce, Eliot, Pound, Stevens, Proust, Mallarme, Kafka, and Rilke are considered the founders of twentieth-century modernism.” (Klages 2007). Poetry discarded the old Victorian styles and began to look a little like prose and vice-versa. Self reflexivity becomes prominent. Another notable feature was that culture that was once considered high and low made way for what is known as popular culture. It was a time when new forms of advertising like the TV had emerged. Even innovative and not necessarily effective advertising appeared on TV and print. Parody and irony in literature and arts became popular. Colour television made its entry during this period. Even though many of the changes found in modernism continued some of the notable changes from this period is given here. Self reflexivity became more pronounced and now came to be known as extreme self reflexivity. Architecture of the period began to include ideas from earlier periods like baroque and medieval architecture. Postmodernism is said to have started soon after the war even though some scholars argue that it started much later in the early 1980’s. But if the former viewpoint is taken, the age when Volkswagen advertisements began to appear, it was in the post-modern period. Culture Industry: The term cultural industry was first coined by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in their book Dialectic of Enlightenment in the year 1947. The work is a critical look at the influence of commerce and industry on culture. Both of them were closely associated with the Frankfurt School of thought which is said to be responsible for the creation of the Critical Theories like Marxism. According to the authors, this trend started during the Victorian era novels that were written for commercial gains rather than as a medium of artistic expression. The trend caught on and continues to this day. This is a classic example of one of the characteristics of the modernism and post modernism periods mentioned earlier in this paper, the disspperence of the difference between high and low art. Advertisements now use artistic expression to sell products. The authors say that this is true for the movie industry as well. An example they give is the western movies that were popular in the US and in other places where American movies were popular. The term western in the movies became a commodity that a certain section of the audience preferred to watch. It did not really matter what the story was or the quality of the movie. To a certain extent, the star of the movie was able to influence the success of the product. So, art is used to here for profitability and not for art’s sake. The cliché that customer is the king is not true in this context. The culture industry has made them objects and victims of mass production. “Thus, although the culture industry undeniably speculates on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which it is directed, the masses are not primary, but secondary, they are an object of calculation; an appendage of the machinery. The customer is not king, as the culture industry would have us believe, not its subject but its object.” (Adorno 2000). In fact mass production is one of the reasons for the emergence of this industry. When the US began mass production of goods and the motive to make the citizens of the country into a group of mass purchasers, businessmen and their advisors began to incorporate art into the business world. Advertisements no longer were the work of an individual. It became a planned event, incorporating artists who could visualise and create, ad writers who could write with creativity, imagination and brevity. Irony and ridicule, another aspect of modernism and post modernism also began to appear in this form of art. Art in the earlier periods were created by individuals who by strength of imagination and ideas created paintings or books. But in the modern ages, it changed from individual to team work, something that is essential in the business. So, a merger of art and business came into being. This merger ultimately resulted in the creation of the culture industry that we see today. The works of Bernbach can easily be classified as a product of this industry. All elements of art and business promotion are seen and that too for the purpose of selling a car to the masses. In other words the effort was aimed at mass production for mass consumption. The Volkswagen beetle is a cheap and small car especially by American standards of that time. So, the product can fall into the category of mass produced goods. In fact the beetle in the form originally envisioned by Adolf Hitler and left unchanged till its production stopped worldwide, is the largest selling single automobile model in the world. “Volkswagen’s Beetle is the best selling car in history. Legend has it that Adolf Hitler himself drew its legendary shape on a paper towel. During almost 60 years, the incredible 21,529,464 Beetles were produced, which is particularly significant when taking into account the fact that during 60 years the Beetle had the same car body, with some mechanical changes. The original form of the Beetle was produced until 2003, when the last car left the Volkswagen factory in Mexico.” (Top 5 World’s Most Successful Cars Ever: Volkswagen Beetle. 2006). Conclusion: Industry has taken over art. It is not that they have taken over it in total. Traditional way of creating art still exists. There are still many who create art as expression of their own feelings. They do not do it for the money and work alone. But art in commerce is different. As can be seen from Berbach’s ads, a beautiful blending of art and commerce has taken place. Creation is now done as a team for the sole purpose of promoting products and consumerism. This is true for the movie and music industry as well. It is as if money is the driving force behind everything. But whatever may be said about this phenomenon, Bernbach’s ads stand out among a few that has blended creative art, honesty and business and still managed to create an astoundingly successful product. Bibliography ADORNO, Theodor W (2000). Culture Industry Reconsidered. From: New German Critique, 6, Fall 1975. [online]. Soundscapes.info. Last accessed 11 May 2008 at: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/SWA/Culture_industry_reconsidered.shtml BERNBACH, William (2008). Ad Industry Icons: William Bernbach. [online]. 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