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Advertising History, 1860-1920

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Patent Medicines

1. Herbal compounds, tonics, liniment oils1. “Dr. Duponco’s Golden

Periodical Pills”2. “Hamlin’s Wizard Oil”

2. 1804: 80; 1860: 1,500 +

3. Gout, fallen arches, liver disease, etc.

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Why Popular?

1. Commonplace illness1. Civil War veterans

2. Weak allopathic medicine

3. Homeopathic tradition (Women)

4. Rural society5. Magical Belief/

Irrational?

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Advertising Oriented

1. ad-to-sales ratios: 40%+

2. national advertisers

3. pioneer brands/ trademarks

4. 1/2 newspaper ads1860; 1/3 -1890

5. “red clause” contracts

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Patent Medicine Advertising

1. newspapers, trade cards, billboards, etc.

2. travelling medical shows

3. “modern” advertiser1. symbolism2. image/text3. sensationalism

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Advertising Orientation

1. “Patent” for trademark protection

1. “printer’s ink on the bottle”

2. Alcohol

3. Pain-killers (coca/opiates)

“Trickster” and Patent Medicines

Here Today… Belief/Disbelief Real/False Liars; “Inventive and

Creative Cultural Force”

Treat Illness/Renew, Invigorate

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Advertising/Truth

Daniel Boorstin: “Advertising befuddles our experience, not because advertisers are liars, but precisely because they are not… Advertising fogs our daily lives less from its peculiar lies than from its peculiar truths…The simple question, ‘Is it true?’ is as obsolete as the horse and buggy.”

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Case Study: Lydia E. Pinkham Co.

1. Lydia E. Pinkham Co. 1875- 2. pleurisy root, fenugreek seed,

unicorn root, alcohol3. Vegetable Compound/Kidney

Pills4. Ad-to-sales ratio: 40-60%5. Sales peak, $3.4 mil (1925)

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Why Successful?

1. “Age of the Womb”1. menstruation/

menopause/pregnancy

2. “ovaritis” “prolapsed uteris”

2. Weak allopathic alternative

3. “home doctoring”/ homeopathy

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Psychological Problems (1900s)

1. “nerves,” jitters, “the blues”

2. Psychology

3. Psychic/physical health

4. Tempo of “modern” life

5. Women’s “tonic”

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Pinkham– “Human Chemistry”

1. Advice Letters 1. 1929 -400,000 on file

2. Testimonial Letters

3. Customer Relations

4. Improve Advertising (copy research)

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Patent Medicine/Market Research

1. Track diseases, illnesses, complaints

2. Information/Letter Brokers

1. Mailing Lists by Disease

2. Advertise/Sell Lists to patent medicine dealers

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Patent Medicine/Market Research

1. Direct Mail

2. Database Marketing

3. Target Marketing vs. “Shotgun” approach

1. One-to-One Marketing

4. Two-fold Commodification

5. Marketing Capitalism

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Patent Medicines Today?

hair-growth lotions Aromatherapy Chiropractic pain-relief bracelet others?

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Examples www.infomercial-hell.com

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P.T. Barnum

1. 1840s Sudder's American Museum, NY

2. Handbills, posters for Museum

3. Carnivalesque4. High-brow/Low-Brow

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Barnum-Advertising

Promotional Spectacle: banners, brass bands,

gas lighting Advertising Perceived as:

insincere, false, deceptive

“Erase the Barnum image”

Authentic/artificial Sincere/Contrived

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Endurance of Barnum Tradition

Carnival Fairs-Exhibitions Niagara Falls

‘museums’ Others?

Barnumesque Tradition

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Patent Medicine Opponents

1. Professional Medicine (AMA/CMA)

2. Magazine Publishers

3. Corporate Mass Advertisers

Reasons:

1. Consumer Fraud

2. Public Health

3. Public Decency

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“Modern” Corporate Advertisers

Campbell’s Soup (1869)

Procter & Gamble Ivory Soap (1879)

Coca Cola (1886) Kodak Gillette Social Legitimacy

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Corporate Advertising, 1880-1920

1. Rising Population (US)1. 1880: 50 mil; 1920 106 mil.

2. Urbanization (2,500+)1. 1880: 28%; 1920; 51%

3. Higher Per Capita Income:1. 1880: $147; 1920: $639

2. discretionary spending

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Second Industrial Revolution, post- 1860s1. Large-scale factory system

2. Coal replaces wood/water

3. Iron/steel industries

4. Economies-of-scale production

5. Capital-intensive/high fixed costs

6. Realization Thesis? Bonsack Machine (1880s)

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Retailer-Advertiser Power Struggle

1. Manufacturer wrest power from retailer via branding/advertising

2. Product Substitution

3. Ivory Soap – Manufacturer Power1. Sunshine Biscuits

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Advertising Spending (US)

1. 1880: $104 million; 1919: $1.4 billion2. Ad share of newspaper-mag revenue

1. 1880: 44% ; 1920: 66%

3. Number of US Daily Newspapers:1. 1854: 254 2. 1900: 2,226

4. How advertise in so many local papers?

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Advertising Agents

George P. Rowell New England, 1865-

1. line rates

2. wholesaler of white space

1. “space jobber”

2. bulk buy for lowest price

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Space Jobbers

1. Lord & Thomas

1. religious publications

2. J. Walter Thompson

1. magazines

2. exclusive access deals

3. “closed” contracts

4. Aligned with newspapers

5. Rebates, etc., if sell space full price

6. Buy space only w/ affiliated papers

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A.J. Ayer (N.W. Ayer & Son)

1. modern agency2. “open” contract (1875)3. advertiser-oriented

service 4. commission system

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Ad Agent Functions

1. knowledge of newspaper/periodical market

2. lowest prices (rate card cutting)

3. Media Buying:1. researchers

2. space-buyers

3. checkers

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Ad Agent Functions

1. Copywriting: little in late 1880s1. advertisers “knew best”

2. freelance ‘advertising specialists’

2. Illustration 1. print shops/commercial artists

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Full Service Agency (Today)

1. Media Buying (Media Research)

2. Copywriting/Art Direction

3. Market/Consumer Research

4. (Public Relations, Govt Relations, etc)

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Ayer & Son: Full Service Agency

1. American Newspaper Annual 1880

2. 1900: 160 employees/12 depts

3. Account executives 1. copywriters, art directors

4. Clients: Hires Root Beer, Procter & Gamble

5. Legitimacy

6. Remedial market research

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Summary

1. Patent Medicines & Problem of Body/Mind

1. Modern Advertising: Symbolism/Market Data

2. Endurance of Patent Medicine Tradition

2. P.T. Barnum

3. Corporate Advertisers (Consumer Goods) Kellogg’s,

4. Socio-Economic Change

1. Second Industrial Revolution

2. Retailer-Manufacturer Power Struggle

5. Advertising Agents

6. Full-Service Ad Agency