Ads Then & Now

From a 10 year anniversary to its first ever global marketing campaign, Weight Watchers is making strides with backing from celebrities other than Oprah. The 1972 Ad: An Anniversary Copy Content Like a lot of the ads in these Life magazines, Weight Watchers went heavy on the copy for this 10 year anniversary advertisement. They provided a clear headline—"Weight Watchers celebrates ten years that changed the shape of the world"—humorous when you think about it, and then gave readers five paragraphs of information. It's quite a bit of content so heres the gist of it: First column, paragraph one: Says the 10 year anniversary is "next May" (May 1973) and readers can celebrate by starting WW now instead of later. First column, paragraph two: "Millions of Members," WW is showing off its success and authority as a weight loss system. Second column, paragraph one: explanation of the three-in-one plan and how it works, plus the "bonus...

Yeah, you read that right. Holiday Inn as in the hotel you stay at when you go out of town. The 1970s Advertisement Holiday Inn's 1972 advertisement focuses on the Holiday Inn restaurant more than the hotel part of a Holiday Inn. So Many Choices but Nowhere to Eat Here it is! All five paragraphs of type convincing people to stop by the Holiday Inn restaurant. Instead of typing out all of it like I have for previous ads, I'll just give you the gist of it. I'm sure we've all been in this situation. You and your friends or family are getting ready to go out to eat. Mom wants one type of food, dad wants another, sibling sides with mom, you don't want any of the choices they give. The advertisement targets this scenario—a groups inability to agree on what to eat and where. Playing on the fact that Holiday Inn Restaurant's have something for everyone, the ad showcases six images of different meals on the menu. Let's talk design.  For an adverti...

In business for 155 years and celebrating it. Smirnoff has just put out is first global advertising campaign in more than 25 years (The Drum) and it's the most recent comeback campaign we've talked about. The ad was shown to the public just this month, October 8th to be exact, and people are already writing about it. Why do I keep picking brands that took time off from advertising??? The Smirnoff Brunch The 1969 ad uses both visual and verbal (or textual?) imagery to convey a happy encounter with close friends and loved ones. The image shows a warm environment, a barbecue or picnic brunch table scattered with food and Smirnoff bottles. This warm environment and the happy people within the image help readers associate Smirnoff with good times and good people. Readers can imagine themselves at that party or hosting one like it. The text of the ad is as follows: "The Smirnoff Brunch: a place in the sun Drinking comes out of the dark when Smirnoff people ...

A 1950s Kodak Moment Or in this case "Now is Picture Time." The fine print on this ad reads: " Take your camera with you everywhere—for that's where great snapshots. It's so easy to save your memories instead of wishing you had. And it costs but pennies. Just Get the take-your-camera habit. Take it everywhere—and use it. In the living room. In the yard. In the car. Wherever you go. Try it for a week, and you'll want to do it all your life." Below that is some info on Kodak film and then: " First choice of beginners and experts alike—Genuine Kodak Film—in the familiar yellow box. " For this ad, Kodak was using persuasion to gain customers. They used enticing imagery of happy people with good product placement and text on the ease of use of their camera. Much like the Seagram's ad we discussed last time, however, the typesetting is a mess—not as much as the Seagram's one though. The biggest points for type are the text ...

Lookie here, Seagram's 7 Crown whiskey hasn't put out an ad in decades either. Just like Sun Maid, they find themselves a little behind their competition so they put out a "comeback" campaign. This time we're just going to focus on the design and language of the two ads and talk more about the newest campaign and what media tactics they're using. 1969 Advertisement "We could say we're smoother. Or lighter. Or we could simply talk 'quality'. How smart it is to order Seagram's 7 Crown out. How right it is to serve it to company. But where words might not convince you, this undisputed fact should: So many people find so many good things in Seagram's 7 Crown that it's the best-liked brand of whiskey in the entire world. Is that a slight edge? Or is that a slight edge? Say Seagram's and Be Sure" That's what the two blurbs of text say on the 1969 ad for Seagram's 7 Crown whiskey. Firstly, I'd like...

Looking through my Life magazines I was amazed at two things: How many brands survived 60+ years in an ever-changing economy and market How many brands didn't survive 60+ years in an ever-changing economy and market Sun-Maid is one of those brands that survived. And when researching their current advertising campaign I learned something even crazier that that: Sun-Maid's "Grow Young" campaign is it's first ad in 10 YEARS. What? How? With how often new ads come out for brands like Coke, Sketchers and Target—not sure why these are the first three that pop into my mind when thinking of current ads—you'd think for a brand to stay relevant and at the forefront of consumers minds that brand would advertise like crazy right? Before we get into the new campaign, lets take a look at the Sun-Maid Raisins ad from my 1953 Life magazine. That little box in the corner under Betty Crocker's signature is what I'll be analyzing and we'll b...

    A Brief Introduction To the blog, our sources and the 50s, 60s and 70s! Welcome to Ads Now & Then My original idea for this blog was to discuss and analyze Coca-Cola's branding and advertising. This topic combined three passions of mine: Graphic Design Advertising Collecting Coca-Cola merchandise Instead of limiting myself to one brand, I've decided to open it up to any brands that I find in my resources! I have a small collection of old Life magazines—small as in four—from the 50s, 60s and 70s on-hand for sources and I have knowledge on both design and advertising to help me analyze each ad. This knowledge will allow me to take different views and analysis on each advertisement we discuss. I found our sources at a second hand bookstore in my city. I picked the four Life magazines we'll be looking at because the stories in them were interesting. Paging through them, I noticed the various ads and began to analyze how different the advertisi...