Friday, 15 April 2011

Radium suppositories, anyone?

I love those vintage ads that get emailed around every so often. If you want an instant snapshot of beliefs, insecurities, hopes and fears at a specific point in history, just look at the ads. Ha! Can you believe those smoking doctors? We’re so much more enlightened now!

But looking closer, it’s hard not to notice a few parallels between old ads and their modern equivalents. Sure, the art direction has evolved, but the attitudes – maybe not so much.

And that gets me wondering: which of today’s ads will be the ‘Can you believe it’ ones – and which ones won’t? Will people roll their eyes at our reliance on private cars? Our use of fossil fuel energy? Advertising to children, maybe? Will fast food sponsorship of international sports be the next ‘Doctors smoke Camels’? If someone 50 years on asks us what role we played in moving advertising forward, what will we tell them? That we were just doing our jobs as marketers and consumers, that advertising is supposed to reflect social values, not dictate them – or will we be able to truthfully say that we asked a few awkward questions along the way?

At THE DM GROUP we love advertising that makes us think and ideas that rattle cages. If you’d like to talk about putting your brand a step ahead of the pack, feel free to get in touch.