My little family just came back from a week away at my in-laws cabin in Ohio. And as we drove, painted barns kept catching my eye:
It turns out that estimated 20,000 barns, mostly across Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, carried this exact same marketing message: “Treat Yourself To The Best.” As early as 1913, farmers were being offered a pretty good deal— a few dollars a year to paint to paint a structure they likely would have painted anyway, just advertising the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company.
My undergraduate thesis (as a history major) examined portrayals of masculinity in 1940s and 1950s advertising. And this particular barn, although obviously repainted for preservation, reminded me of the myriad of other advertisements I’d seen for cancer-causing products during that time period. See Exhibit A: “He’s a man with Pipe Appeal— the distinctly masculine look of the man who smokes a pipe. It’s something extra that appeals to the ladies.”
It’s been years since I’ve really thought about this particular project, but just for fun, I dug my thesis out of the virtual bottomless pit that is my computer storage (someone send help), and thought I’d share a few other gems with you:
Even in the 1940s, all you needed was a nice shirt to get the girl…
Advertisers were also deeply concerned the quality of a man’s breath… Halitosis was one of the most common male inadequacies that could best be overcome by Colgate toothpaste and, later, Listerine.
And my personal favorite, although it perhaps spoke more to expectations for women than advertising pressure on men…
You’re welcome for the laughs. 😂
Marketing is not new, nor was it new in the 1940s. But advertising in the 1940s shifted from merely describing a product to reflecting the fears, desires, and appeals that advertisers’ felt would be most effective on individuals similar to themselves.
For example, the advertisements above were some of the first to emphasize that men — no matter how attractive or masculine— did not have complete control over their romantic and sexual encounters with women. In fact, they could be dismissed for maladies as superficial as bad breath and poor dress.
But— of course— this newfound reason to question male prowess… not to mention any other perceived inadequacy, could be easily remedied at the local department store.
Advertisers also very clearly began to articulate a lifestyle associated with the goods they were purchasing.
After two decades of depression and war, everyone was looking to buy their way into stability and security. Manufacturers were more than happy to deliver in the form of cars, refrigerators, sheets, and silverware sets. And advertisers began promising not just functional silverware or a car that gets you from Point A to Point B, but a certain quality of life for individuals who purchased the products vividly displayed in colorful magazines.
In a 1946 address to the Pacific Council Convention of American Association of Advertising Agencies, Peter Odegard reflected:
”Have we held up to the American people a romantic dream world that can be had for the asking?... No one, we are told, can be happy, or successful without this new gadget or that, without two cars in every garage, a beautiful woman on each arm…All this is fine and dandy as a goal. But how do you get all this? By the ancient methods of hard work, intelligence, thrift?
Ah, no! Beauty and good health, success in business, in courtships and marriage can be had by going to your local dealer for a box of this or a bottle of that-and be sure to get the large economy size!”
Let’s get this straight: In the 1940s, a group of advertisers who openly acknowledged that they were still searching for the "real motives that stimulate Man the Consumer to buy” decided that hard work and character weren’t enough to live the American Dream. That every goal, vision, or hope we had for ourselves or our families could only be obtained with a “box of this or a bottle of that.”
And 75 years later, we are still buying (literally) this message.
Over the last century though, despite having the same basic message, advertising has become more invasive and far more effective— and I can’t wait to share some thoughts on that with you next.