Coca Cola 70s and Present day

The brand that I have identified, to compare adverts from the 70s and current day is Coca Cola. In the 70s people were less health conscious therefore the product is displayed with a well balanced platter of fruits and cheeses. The semiotic connotations behind this advert are ones of sophistication and elegance to promote the brand. The cheese and fruit platter is a continental sign of class to be had after or during a meal, this implies that coke can be enjoyed any time. Also that it is a sophisticated beverage as an alternative to alcohol for adults, it is sophisticated and refreshing in a chilled glass bottle that is perspiring like wine out of an ice bucket. 'It's the real thing. Coke.' This tag line implies that the product has been copied, but that nothing beats the original for sophistication and refreshment. Lynx 2012 however conveys very different messages. With the consciousness that Coke is bad for your health they have focused on refreshment and associations with this. In this case it is ice and polar bears this conveys a very clean and pure image for the super bowl advert. That makes the accusations of Coke ruining the planet seem somewhat better. The polar bear praises its refreshment and cherishes it as people should should do with their Coke.

Favorite 60s advert

'Anacin Offers Fast! Fast! Fast! Relief!' - was the campaign I found most interesting whilst reviewing 60s advertising. Both in its copy and in its design. The advert is typical of 60s advertising with over dramatic and familiar three part imagery. It copies the three frame style of magazines and short comic strips of the time, (such as Mad Magazine.) The product translates briefly and effectively,"Hey! Buy my product and you will get this whiz-bang benefit from it!" It is jolly and upbeat, lifting spirits from the end of the War, with connotations of taking all pain away. It was a successful campaign in post WWII America. The rule of three works perfectly in tune with the image in order to promote the idea that all three effects work in unison to achieve the same goal, like the troops working together to overcome the hard times of War for the survival of the business man, running the country back home whose worst problems can be solved by aspirin. It is a pleasant multi part simplistic campaign that has become the basis of the modern pharmaceuticals adverts such as 'Gavisgon' who use two parts, but using a fireman (another industry that works better with multiple people) in order to promote the message that like many industries products work better when their parts or components work together.

War Time and its Effect on Advertising

After Reading Man Appeal Advertising, Modernism and Menswear by Paul Jobling (2005) summarise the evidence suggesting this was an important period of time in advertising history. 

1914 to 1939 was the time period that would determine the survival or destruction of advertising. With the First World War on the horizon all civilian utilities and resources were cut in order to produce the items that were needed for the fighting men over seas. In particular wool and other cloths for clothing manufacture and paper. The restrictions of paper to ‘600 square inches’ meant that advertising was not only limited by technology but also by the context of War time and rationing which was rather engulfing, as nations struggled for survival. The  Daily Express divulged to advertisers that the set backs in paper allowance meant that ‘we cannot accommodate all advertisers at present.’ These restrictions in the economical climate and manufacturing industry threatened to destroy advertising through war time (at the very least).  People had to try and sell lower quality goods at higher prices. Therefore innovations had to be made in order to advertise to a greater span of people for a lower cost. For example ‘Sydney Presbury & Co. promoted the use of manufacture lantern slides in music halls and cinemas’ they advised their customers that altough the expenditure would be greater than posters, the amount of people to see the adverts would be far greater than most poster adverts to come before them. This attitude to overcome the seemingly hopeless financial and manufactural climate made advertisers change their tactics yet again in order to survive in a world that would have readily forgotten them in the whirlwind that was the First World War. 

The ideas about where to advertise were not the only reinventions of the time ‘Sidney Garland (adverting manager of Selfidge & Co 1919)’ demonstrated a very important point. That advertising became about ‘quality and individuality immediately after the First World War.’ Adverts had always focused on quality and style in the past but individuality was a new dimension which shaped the industry with a particular focus on mens clothing and tailoring to make suits specific to the wearer. This identification of a new era in advertising made the ideology particularly influential on the history of advertising as if out of the ashes of the war advertising had not diminished but reinvented its message to suit the needs of the new man that was created as a result of it.

From; Man Appeal Advertising, Modernism and Menswear by Paul Jobling (2005)

An example of a Butchers lantern slide advert for Attwells Butchers.

New York World Fair & Bernbach

New York World Fair (1939 Flushing Meadows- Corona Park)
 
The 1939 New York World Fair was the second largest American World fair of its time spanning over 1939 to 1940. The fair included many participating countries and over 44 million visitors to various exhibitions over the course of two seasons. This was one of the first chances where citizens of the time could view the futuristic interpretations that artists gave of "the world of tomorrow" (according to the provided pamphlet.) A majority of the artworks broke all the  conventions of the time with their simplistic and yet flawless designs, in many ways the fair redefined more what art could be that what it was, as the whole exhibition was set as if it were taking place in the future.
In many ways Bernbach reinvented creativity in the advertising world and the dynamic it had within an agency. Therefore to promote an event that would be larger than any agency at work in the sense that the event would have far more power to sway and manipulate the future Bernbach could continue his work on a grander scale people would associate his creativity and innovation to create scenes before they happen and shape the future in all manners to his work in advertising.
The ways that the New York World Fair was like the millennium dome is in two different ways. Firstly structurally all the revolutionary spherical and cylindrical shapes, although they are not spatially conscious or practical as a square or rectangle they seem to demonstrate a revolution in design throughout the century even right to the end. It is probably because of their lack of practicality and their clinical white colouring that people question them so greatly and in doing so they accept that there is much about the future that they are not yet meant to understand. By doing so they are in awe of its seeming evolution from what they know around them. Secondly 'the world of tommorrow' idea was replicated from the New York World Fair to the millennium dome. By using cutting edge technology of the time to simulate artistic vision the creative people of each era could simulate a justifiable world in which the people may one day form a part. In many ways the concept behind the two is identical the technology just improves.