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The aesthetics of advertising

post #1 of 5
2/6/10 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 
A little while ago I took a study break and decided to use the time to track down an "old" (published in 1998) article from the New Yorker I've been jonesing to read. I pulled the bound volume from the journal stacks and decided to just flip through it first. This particular volume contains probably 5 or 6 issues from 1998 and, more than anything, the advertisements really stood out. This is stuff that is barely a decade old, yet some of the ads feel like they are out of another era. I wonder if I'm just subconsciously noticing things that, in advertising and marketing, have simply become "outdated:" old car models, old logos (Mobil for example). But then there are themes that are clearly a product of their time. A LOT of the ads have somehow mentioned e-mail or the Internet and not in the nonchalant way of the 21st century. One AmEx ad for the Platinum card (it was the "priceless" theme!) said, "A week without your e-mail? Priceless." It almost seems quaint in an era of Blackberrys/iPhones/PDAs. I understand how and why advertising changes so I'm not really looking for an explanation here, but I'm just fascinated by the aesthetics of this stuff. It's only about a decade since yet a lot of it feels different.
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post #2 of 5
2/6/10 at 5:10pm
Its strange but it mostly seems driven by computers. Back in the day key things with design were can it be 4 colour printed? What resolution and file formats were available to printers? Also with each 5 year advance in computing a new aesthetic is generally born. Not to mention that the timeless adverts were the ones that stuck around. When I look at adverts like the Coca-Cola "I'd like to buy the world a coke" it could be re-made today and still work. Try watching "Cash4Gold" adverts in 5 years time, it'll look more dated than Air-Fix! Its actually an interesting thought; I need to start a dissertation on advertising next year so I might make it a project!
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post #3 of 5
2/7/10 at 7:06pm
Thread Starter 
Kunk, anyone? Please reinforce my not-so-revelatory beliefs.
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post #4 of 5
2/7/10 at 7:19pm
Just as a sort of desultory musing, I think it's interesting how people working independently in advertising, graphic design, television, film, music, &c. can create a gestalt impression of an era. Like how movies from the '80s always "feel" like they're from the 80s (and often feel more dated than movies from any other era), how the sound of announcers' voices in the 50s perfectly underline the feeling of solidity of the era, and how the proliferation of color television and color film perfectly anticipated the psychedelic era of the 60s.
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post #5 of 5
2/7/10 at 8:10pm
The other day I was flipping through a coffee table book about the most influential print ads. Some of the older ads had amazing photographs and design. Others, usually for things like cars, were so obviously representative of their time that it was a serious contrast to the other ads. The clothes, the car, etc all had a very distinct style from that period.

I wonder what is more effective: ads that capture the time and pop culture precisely and run for a brief amount of time, or something more timeless?
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