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...

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...