What i thought of the Americans in the sixties when i saw the documentary was "sheep", they all conformed to the same thing, the next big thing. There was a part in the documentary where a family was sat around a dinner table and the wife was asking her husband for a brand new television, at first he was against it wishing to save some money, but as soon as the kids chimed in he caved, but the thing he said next was what got my interest the most, he said "very well let everyone else follow the Jones family" which just adds to the sheep categorization, everyone wanted the same thing, if it was on television, in a magazine or in the paper, they wanted it.
There was a catalog which everyone deferred to called the sears catalog, clothes, worktops, kitchen appliances anything you could think of would probably be in there. Also to reinforce the excess comment i made, there was a whole three pages dedicated to different types of shovels that you could purchase....who needs that many types of shovels. The fact that they had three pages of shovels could be linked to the freedom of choice, giving the illusion of actual freedom, another way to escape from the horrors of the past, and to keep that going they would bring newer versions of the same thing, take for instance a car, most car advertisements were saying, the car your driving is old, you need a new one, and no one wanted to be left behind.
They were very proud of their advertisements in the sixties, so much so that they had huge glass buildings (sky scrapers) built where all the business men would work, which led me to think they were extremely proud of their work, everyone could see through the windows, see what they were working on, it was as if they were saying "look were doing this and were good at it".
Another thing that was huge in the sixties was John F Kennedy (JFK) he was a huge role model to the Americans, he spoke in a clear understandable way and used words very well, he was very persuasive, one the main things JFK said was "the most powerful words you can use to persuade people is new and free, you can rarely use free but you can almost always use new. People from all different kinds of businesses were trying to get him to wear they're products because anything he wore would become instantly wanted, people wanted to be JFK, he became a living brand.
If you look at advertising today and compare it to the 1960's you will see a few similarities but a lot of differences, take for instance the mobile phone, just like the shovels in the sears catalog there is a huge choice of different looking models that do the exact same thing, there maybe some slight differences, certain little perks the others wont have but they will inevitably be used for the same thing.
Probably the biggest difference today compared to the 1960's is the way advertisement is presented, in the 1960's they had a very set rule about how a family works, the woman would stay at home and look after the kids, washing,cleaning etc, and the man would go out and earn the money, now this had a very interesting affect on how the way adverts were presented, adverts selling home appliances would be directed at women, they would be steered more towards making the woman's life easier or more comfortable, however adverts aimed towards men would degrade women, make them appear as sex objects or trophy's, which you would rarely hear of let alone see in today's world.
The most important thing that has changed about advertisement over the years is how important brands are. Over the years brands have become the most valuble assest a company can have, a good brand that gets recognized by consumers, depending on its reputation is more likley to sell, people become loyal to brands that dont dissapoint them and will start to buy their product more than anyone else's, its almost like you become friends with them and by buying from them your helping them out.
Lets take Coca-Cola for example the way they have used their brand has made them a powerhouse in the soft drink industry, they find new and innotive ways to present their brand and they do it well.
