Following my last visit to the Library of Congress, where I examined issues of The Saturday Evening Post from 1945 and 1950:
I noticed that the magazine back then contained a lot of technology advertising. Not products, but the technologies behind them. This is quite interesting because the companies behind these technologies obviously get more orders when consumers start purchasing a certain product.
I illustrate this post with several cases: Monsanto and Celanese, corporations producing plastics and agrochemicals (later acquired by Bayer), DuPont, advertising its new products—Cellophane and the water-repellent coating Zelan, and ads from companies like USS Steel, Republic Steel, producing steel.
For example, the company DuPont marketed Cellophane, a packaging cellulose film. Entire magazine spreads were essentially dedicated to educational purposes. It’s obvious that the consumer could see in the store that the cookies under the film were visible because the film is transparent. But creating a trend to buy specifically such cookies, in film, could only be done through advertising abstract cookies in film.
Or here’s a translation of a Monsanto ad:
“Air… from which modern chemists extract certain vital components that play a huge role. Sulfanilamide and a range of other pharmaceutical products for a longer, healthier life; better soaps for easier cleaning; improved wool fabrics for higher quality clothing; phosphates for lighter, fluffier biscuits; insecticides and repellents for improving human health and comfort; chemicals introducing innovations in flavorings, dyes, plastics, paints… In all this, some basic components were derived by chemistry from Earth’s atmosphere. In all these and many other new and exciting fields, Monsanto Chemistry works towards creating a bright future with greater human comfort, better health, a higher standard of living, and greater opportunities.”
(Sulfanilamide refers to sulfa drugs, and the phosphates for biscuits are sodium acid pyrophosphate, a baking powder)
I actually suspect that these ads were also targeted at those pondering whose stocks to buy with the next paycheck.
Interestingly, back then every other ad was from this category, but now I even struggle with examples from the recent past and present. It seems that now one hundred percent of advertising is focused on specific products, not the technology.
From the relatively recent counterexamples I can recall, there’s Intel advertising Intel Inside in popular press. Maybe also Gorilla Glass: Tougher Together. Maybe IMAX, though I don’t remember seeing their ads outside of theaters. Can you think of others?
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 