Television Commercials in the 1950s and the 1960s

This week we will be looking at the history of advertising and how it has evolved from the 1920s. By using an example of a commercial from the 1950s this shall be made clear. Roland Marchand (1985) analysed American advertisements in the 1920s and 1930s and recognised that “advertisements gave increasingly more attention to the consumer, rather than the product” (p xxi). The adverts of the time reiterated the values of American society, however Marchand suggests that these adverts may not have provided an accurate reflection of society. He states that adverts contributed to the community of discourse which was a common language shared amongst a diverse audience. This discourse from 1920s adverts was responding to advertising agents, who represented and reinforced the economic and cultural elite. They promoted the promise of the American dream as a ‘modern dream’, and this modern life was characterised by the consumption of goods.

David Machin (2007) focuses on people in visual communication. He praises discourse analysis for revealing subtle messages in texts, and his own work focuses on how images are constructed. He has three main concepts that demonstrate the position of the view inside the image.

The gaze = to what extent we are encouraged to engage with the participants. Angle of Interaction = this can create power relationships and also involvement. Distance = this is social distance and suggests either intimacy or remoteness.

We can apply both Marchand’s and Machin’s theory onto a commercial from the 1950s.

‘I love Lucy’ Philips Morris cigarette commercial

The commercial I have chosen to discuss appears on the American TV sitcom ‘I love Lucy’ which ran from 1951 to 1957. The two stars of the show Lucille and Ricky are featured in the advertisement and portray a couple. It is an interesting choice because cigarette commercials no longer exist in contemporary society because from the 1970s onwards advertising of cigarettes and tobacco products were banned and forbidden in the US and UK. Therefore, seeing an advert promoting smoking seems very strange. However, in the 1950s and 1960s many cigarette brands sponsored television shows.

Though in the 1950s filters were added at the end of cigarettes to reduce the amount of tar being inhaled. Therefore new cigarette brands emerged that were ‘safer’ and ‘less potent’. In 1954 many cigarette companies were disputing the reports of there being a casual link between smoking and cancers.

The language used to describe the cigarette, such as ‘fresh’, ‘mild’, ‘smooth’, seems contradictory to the image we have of cigarettes today, and overall doesn’t seem to be an appropriate or accurate description of them. The language used to portray the product is part of the overall discourse of cigarettes in the 1950s. Today’s discourse surrounding tobacco involves medical discourse and the concern around their health implications. In fact many adverts are aimed to stop people from smoking. However, when this advert for Philips Morris was made the tobacco company’s main goal was to make profit.

This commercial demonstrates Marchand’s point about adverts reiterating the values of society.

Within the advertisement the actors ‘look’ at the viewers, Machin (2007) states that this is “symbolic contact or interaction between the viewer and the people depicted”. The viewer is acknowledged here. In terms of angle of interaction, we see the people face on and are on the same height as them. If we saw them from above we, as the viewers, would be in a superior position. Though this is not the case, and as we feel equal to those in the advert, we feel that we can achieve what is portrayed and advertised to us.

However, if we analyse the commercial more closely, it is very clearly surrounded by patriarchal discourse. This is seen visually, as the woman is slightly shorter than the man so has to look up at him, which represents his superiority. The dialogue has an interesting use of language. The character of Lucy says to her husband “there’s nothing but the best for you” which implies that Philips Morris is the best brand of cigarettes, but specifically the best brand for men to give them the best satisfaction. After lighting the cigarette for him, she winks at the viewer before saying “see how easy it is to keep a man happy” (by giving them a Philips Morris cigarette). This confirms that the target audience is women as it is about a wife pleasing her husband, which was perceived as the common goal between all women. In the 1950s society deemed to be a woman’s job to satisfy her husband (marriage was a strong ideal in that decade), and to even put his happiness before her own. As the majority of women in this time had the role of housewife, they were the biggest purchaser for items in the home, so companies knew that they best appeal to a female audience. Towards the end of the advert Ricky (the male character) says that a woman’s husband will love Philips Morris cigarettes “for their smoothness, mildness and incredibly good taste… and he’ll love you too!”. This reinforces patriarchal values, as not only is the woman positioned as inferior to the man, she is inferior to the product as well. The husband will appreciate the cigarette before you, is what the advertisement is really saying.

 

References:

Marchand, R.
(1985). Advertising the American Dream. Making Way for Modernity, 1920 –1940. Berkeley etc.: University of California Press.

Machin, D.
(2007). Introduction to multimodal analysis. London: Hodder Arnold. (chapter 6: “Representation of social actors in the image”)

 

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