The icons of our everyday culture
A new book by James B. Twitchell presents the 20 most important campaigns of the 20th century
A new book by James B. Twitchell presents the 20 most important campaigns of the 20th centuryBy Thérèse Balduzzi James B. Twitchell, American author of critical books on pop culture and advertising, seems to have come to terms with the omnipresence of advertising. His new book "Twenty Ads That Shook the World" is an analysis of twenty campaigns that have become American cultural assets. It reads like an ode to advertising.
Whether you like it or not, the author says in the introduction to his new book that advertising has replaced the former literary common knowledge as a frame of reference in conversations. Twitchell, who has criticized commercial culture in numerous books ("Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture", "Lead us into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism" and "Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America"), does not, however, attack this reality in great depth and takes a pragmatic stance. However, he criticizes the fact that far too little is known about the history of advertising and that it is not even taught enough in advertising schools.
With his new book, Twitchell aims to fill this gap in the historiography of advertising culture and analyze the development and success of campaigns that, in his opinion, have fundamentally changed American culture and thus the rest of the world influenced by American culture.
Advertisers also created the needs for the product
Twitchell does not explain his selection criteria in detail. Of course, he is not only interested in the most clever campaigns, but also in the art with which information is communicated and absorbed, and in the art of influencing consumers. He sees his list as an analogy to anthologies that compile the most important works of Western literature.
He enthusiastically recounts the ingenious pranks that advertisers have come up with over the years. Twitchell begins in the dark beginnings of the industry 120 years ago, when a certain P. T. Barnum described his cabinet of curiosities from New York as the "Greatest Show on Earth", making him the forefather of all superlatives and excessive exaggerations in advertising copy. (The word "jumbo" goes back to Barnum.) The sellers of the mouthwash "Listerine" also achieved a stroke of genius in 1924 by first creating a sense of shame for the "medical" problem of "halitosis" (bad breath) and then immediately offering a cure for it. The expression "Pepsodent smile" had a similar effect on perception and language.
Advertising is being brought close to promises of salvation
From the 1950s onwards, old acquaintances appear again and again in such compilations: The Marlboro Man, who stylized the former women's cigarette into the epitome of male independence; DeBeer's "Diamonds are forever" campaign, which made diamonds an integral part of mating rituals; the "Think small" campaign for the VW Beetle in 1962, which managed to sell Americans a small car, and Clairol's "Does she...or doesn't she?" campaign, which broke the taboo on hair dyeing. From the 70s onwards, we have Revlon's "Charlie" advertisement, which boldly pointed to the new self-image of women, the Absolut campaign as the perfect "packaging" for a boring drink, the legendary Apple 1984 commercial by Chiat/Day and, last but not least, the Michael Jordan phenomenon.
Advertising is a typically Western phenomenon, writes author James B. Twitchell, who also finds parallels to the Christian religion and its promises of salvation in his analysis. However, he considers the exaggerated criticism of the materialism of consumer culture to be misguided: we need the very meanings that advertising attaches to products because we are not materialistic enough. The claim that advertising creates artificial needs is based on the myth of a time when people only had natural rather than cultural needs.
Whether you like it or not, the author says in the introduction to his new book that advertising has replaced the former literary common knowledge as a frame of reference in conversations. Twitchell, who has criticized commercial culture in numerous books ("Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture", "Lead us into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism" and "Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America"), does not, however, attack this reality in great depth and takes a pragmatic stance. However, he criticizes the fact that far too little is known about the history of advertising and that it is not even taught enough in advertising schools.
With his new book, Twitchell aims to fill this gap in the historiography of advertising culture and analyze the development and success of campaigns that, in his opinion, have fundamentally changed American culture and thus the rest of the world influenced by American culture.
Advertisers also created the needs for the product
Twitchell does not explain his selection criteria in detail. Of course, he is not only interested in the most clever campaigns, but also in the art with which information is communicated and absorbed, and in the art of influencing consumers. He sees his list as an analogy to anthologies that compile the most important works of Western literature.
He enthusiastically recounts the ingenious pranks that advertisers have come up with over the years. Twitchell begins in the dark beginnings of the industry 120 years ago, when a certain P. T. Barnum described his cabinet of curiosities from New York as the "Greatest Show on Earth", making him the forefather of all superlatives and excessive exaggerations in advertising copy. (The word "jumbo" goes back to Barnum.) The sellers of the mouthwash "Listerine" also achieved a stroke of genius in 1924 by first creating a sense of shame for the "medical" problem of "halitosis" (bad breath) and then immediately offering a cure for it. The expression "Pepsodent smile" had a similar effect on perception and language.
Advertising is being brought close to promises of salvation
From the 1950s onwards, old acquaintances appear again and again in such compilations: The Marlboro Man, who stylized the former women's cigarette into the epitome of male independence; DeBeer's "Diamonds are forever" campaign, which made diamonds an integral part of mating rituals; the "Think small" campaign for the VW Beetle in 1962, which managed to sell Americans a small car, and Clairol's "Does she...or doesn't she?" campaign, which broke the taboo on hair dyeing. From the 70s onwards, we have Revlon's "Charlie" advertisement, which boldly pointed to the new self-image of women, the Absolut campaign as the perfect "packaging" for a boring drink, the legendary Apple 1984 commercial by Chiat/Day and, last but not least, the Michael Jordan phenomenon.
Advertising is a typically Western phenomenon, writes author James B. Twitchell, who also finds parallels to the Christian religion and its promises of salvation in his analysis. However, he considers the exaggerated criticism of the materialism of consumer culture to be misguided: we need the very meanings that advertising attaches to products because we are not materialistic enough. The claim that advertising creates artificial needs is based on the myth of a time when people only had natural rather than cultural needs.
