Advertising
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Coca-Cola serves as a good example of how product advertising changed over a forty-year period. When first introduced in the 1880s, the product was marketed as a medicine, with claims that it cured headaches, and that it "revived and sustained" a person. Seeking to build repeat business and brand loyalty, by the 1920s the company emphasized it as a refreshment and a "fun food".
Consumer spending–fueled in part by the increased availability of consumer credit–on automobiles, radios, household appliances, and leisure time activities like sports and movies going paced a generally prosperous 1920s. Advertising promoted these products and services. The rise of mass circulation magazines, radio broadcasting and motion pictures provided new media for advertisements to reach consumers. A booming economy fed the rapidly growing film industry. The introduction of sound in film in the mid to late 1920’s only served to make the industry explode into a national obsession. Classy film posters, hand painted and elegant, advertised the newest films to hit the big screen.
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Scientific breakthroughs had brought man to the verge of paradise. An incredible lack of regulation led to some of the strangest advertising our nation has seen. New inventions were flooding into stores that promised to reshape one’s face, fix a poor back, or protect one from ANY virus. Strange, but well intentioned, the people had almost too much trust in “science”.