Soap, Sex,and Cigarettes Ch.4

"Roaring Twenties: `1920-1929)

Art Deco

In the 1920s-1930s of the US, it was a design and architecture style emphasizing a design with bold colors, stylized representations, and ornamentation, often featuring jagged shapes (zig zag, Chevron). First publicly exhibited in the 1925 World’s Fair in Paris, industrial and product designers turned the decorative style into both luxury goods and trendy, machine-made products to be marketed to a broad public

Art Director/Graphic Director

In an advertising agency, professionals responsible for the look and preparation of print advertising.

Confession magazines

A genre of pulp fiction that publishes first-person intimate stories aimed at young working-women, beginning with True Story in 1919

Creative Strategy 

For a marketing campaign, the plan which involves the target market, the product concept, the communications media, and developing the advertising message, which is a combination of visuals and copy 

fashion

in this era of advertising, it refers to how manufacturers recognized the idea that a splash of color or design alteration in a product could enhance a product’s value and inflate its price

marketing strategy

manufacturer’s plan to develop products for clearly defined customers; the company’s objectives include the product, price, channels of distribution, and promotion

pattern-maker

the ad agency professional creating the first ad, which would set the theme and style for a campaign

personalities

experts, company founders, and other prominent people, used in ads and who offered a personal touch in the work of the J. Walter Thompson agency during the 1920s

planned obsolescence

an industrial design strategy whereby products are deliberately made to have a limited useful life

pulp fiction

inexpensive novels and magazines introduced in the 1920s, which used low-quality paper to print them. These fictional genres offered readers an escape through stories of mystery, adventure, and sexuality 

quantitative market research

numerically orientated research on specific markets, which often involves statistical analysis about specific markets: audience profiles, amount of media coverage, brand preference rankings, etc.

self-service grocery

piggly-wiggly was the first grocery store chain that allowed shoppers to select items from the shelves, put them in hand-held baskets, and paid for them at the checkout counter. These strategies lowered prices for consumers.

sponsorship

the presentation of a radio program, TV show, or event by a brand/product/manufacturer/company, who paid for production costs in exchange for promotional opportunities. Many early radio programs were financed by a sole sponsor.

tabloid audience

In the 1920s, the term came to characterize the reading tastes of average men and women

tabloid newspapers

Newspapers that focus on splashy, sensational stories about crime and scandals, beginning with the illustrated daily news in 1919

women’s service magazines

magazines designed to appeal to women how are homemakers, such as the Ladies Home Journal, the Good Housekeeping, and McCalls’. Content included articles on fashion, decorating, housekeeping, recipes, etc.

Melodrama

In the 1920s, these were formulaic ads that incorporated the enormously popular narratives of True Story and True Romances magazines. This style kept the copy short, personalized, intimate, while also emphasizing romance, tragic adventures, and other heightened, dramatic conflicts  

friendly advisor

a fictious spokeswoman that interacted with the consumers in a column margin to promote products. Ex: Ruth Miller for Odorono Deodorants

modern testimonial

endorsement of a product or service by prominent or wealthy figures — debuantes, royalty, socialites, European nobility— using photographs, messages or talks or interviews

tabloid technique

Formulaic ad that imitated the tabloid newspapers. The ad featured a bold headline, text which was broken into four or five sections, and might contain illustrations, diagrams, testimonials and dramatic photographs

celebrity endorsement

a paid testimonial from a celebrity for a brand or certain product. In the 1920s Hollywood studio system era, Lux Toilet Soaps Hollywood Campaign was successful, if misleading, as endorsing celebrities didn’t necessarily prefer or regularly used this product