A far cry from the aggressive ads we’ve become used to, American print advertisements from the first two decades of the 20th century were almost shockingly pleasant. Intricately designed and beautifully illustrated, often in the art nouveau style popular at the time, four-color, full-page magazine advertisements were welcome respites from the bland, text-filled pages among which they appeared. Sales pitches were earnest and friendly; beer, for example, was billed as “The Evening Glass of Cheer” and toothpaste was described as “Delicious Ribbon Dental Cream”—perhaps not the catchiest slogans, but they were on to something. The American consumerist boom of the 20th century was just beginning and advertising was getting its sea legs. From motorcars to hair tonics to steamship cruises to Coca-Cola (”After the theatre drink a glass… it relieves fatigue”), America was peddling its wares in style and setting an example of how to advertise in the modern age. This exhaustive compendium of ads from the period—many of which haven’t been seen for over eight decades—is a fascinating reminder of surprisingly simpler times and a rediscovery of a forgotten age in advertising history.
Customer Reviews
It all “ads” Up:
This installment of All-American Ads covers the dawn of the 20th century and the beginning of sophisticated selling. The book follows the same format used in previous volumes covering magazine advertising in each decade of the last century.
The book documents the rise of branded national advertising. While some of the ideas are dated– there are a number of current campaign and tag lines that had their genisus in this time period.
National magazine and newspaper advertising would grow into a tremendously potent medium in the ’20’s and ’30’s (both covered well by other books in this series) but, if like me, you are fascinated by what our ancestors bought and how it was sold to them– this book is a good place to see what got them into stores.
Oh We Are Just SOOO Much Smarter Now Aren’t We?:
While I love the ads in both this book and in All American Ads of the 1920s I really think that we can do without the self congratulatory “Look at me, I’m so PC” commentary from people who can’t even begin to IMAGINE what life was like back in the early years of the 20th century.
Sure, we KNOW that women and minorities were seen as occupying very specific and limited roles in society but do we NEED the smug commentary of people who in later generations will be seen as the typical exemplars of smug, white, Starbucks going, black-shirt w/jeans wearing, laptop carrying, SUV driving early 21st century upwardly mobile ideals?
I mean is OUR advertising all that much more enlightened? Does EVERYONE live in a HUGE apartment with a view of Golden Gate Bridge and drive a car you could use as a troop transport vehicle?
No—they don’t—nor are all women skinny, about 5′10″ with stick straight hair and eerily luminous teeth—but that is OUR “advertising ideal”—so?
Enough shooting fish in a barrel and doing the equivalent of sneering at Titanic ads for mentioning classes of travel. That’s who these people WERE. We KNOW that. Some of it was good (the beauty and artistry of the illustrations) and some of it sucked (the offhand racism and insensitivity) but just like today, when people who are poor/the wrong ethnic group/overweight, are seen as not worth advertisers notice since they are assumed to be unable to buy the advertisers products certain segments of Edwardian society were treated with less than dignity and consideration.
If you really want to impress me don’t tell me that a person from 1900 was racist and try to elicit my oh-so-knowing shock…point out how heavyset women are treated as ugly jokes in the MODERN ads that we see as “the norm”
If you can step outside your OWN box, THEN you are impressive.
Very soft sell:
The ninth and final volume in this fascinating series of American advertising. If like me you have collected the set your bookcase is supporting just over six thousand pages, which contain at least fifteen thousand ads, all beautifully printed on quality paper.
This last book, though is just on the fringes of my interest but it does have some lovely ad artwork. I was expecting to be overwhelmed by heavy Victorian style illustrations but there is some very refreshing work with a delicate touch, mostly for products like clothing, perfume or soap aimed at the female consumer. As with the other volumes the chapter on auto ads has the most ambitiously produced material, either as art or copy, page 162 has a 1914 Packard ad with the car outside a cathedral and just one line of text, ‘Ask the man who owns one’. Adventurous stuff for the times considering that most ads were very text heavy.
Unlike later decades consumer goods are scarcely visible though I was surprised to see on page 257 a 1919 Western Electric ad for their Dish-Washing Machine. Mostly the ‘must have’ items seem to be sewing machines, telephones, stoves or phonographs. This last product had a 1913 Columbia ad promoting their 78s as Double Disc Records. Music on both sides. Two records for a single price. Considering that photography had been around since the mid-1800s only two or three ads in the book use photos, the 1908 King Air Rifle has a clear photo of three kids dreaming about getting their own rifles and free targets, too.
This thick book will interest social historians and also illustrators, there are some wonderful examples of graphic styling that really don’t seem too dated even though many are just over a hundred years old. I think Taschen should be congratulated for publishing nearly ten decades of American ad creativity.
