{"id":23671,"date":"2019-08-01T08:55:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T08:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/?p=23671"},"modified":"2019-08-05T20:06:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T20:06:26","slug":"periodical-advertisements-show-off-the-lasting-power-of-the-american-consumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/2019\/08\/01\/periodical-advertisements-show-off-the-lasting-power-of-the-american-consumer\/","title":{"rendered":"Periodical Advertisements Show off the Lasting Power of the American Consumer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was contributed by Nicole Horowitz a graduate student in the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film, who recently completed an internship with curator Anne Bahde. Nicole examined women\u2019s periodicals from the modernist period to look at the intersections between literature and material culture during the era. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A venture over to any special collections\nor archival research center housed in a university worth its salt will boast a\nwide array of periodicals, likely ranging from the mid-19th<\/sup> century\nto the modern-day. But, while most archival material is more likely spotted in\nthe pages of a history book than on the shelves of the local supermarket, we\u2019d\nlike to bring your attention to a notable exception to that rule: the world of periodical\nadvertisements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while OSU\u2019s own Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) boasts a wide an array of ad-type holdings, one doesn\u2019t need a Mad Men<\/em> level appreciation of the history of adverts to appreciate them. In fact, many of the brands featured in popular periodicals of the Modernist Era, for example (roughly the 1890s to the 1930s), are as familiar to the modern consumer as they were to their 20th<\/sup> century counterparts. A Women\u2019s Home Companion<\/em>, for example, contains ads for everything from Listerine to Sunkist Oranges to Valspar Paint, none of which would seem out of place in our modern marketplace. And a further look at these ads might reveal not only popular trends in art, fashion, and food of the era, but also the lasting power of these powerhouse brands, and how that might help us understand the American consumer as both ever-changing and ever-staying-the-same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1918<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Take for example, two\nadvertisements for Heinz products, one from 1918, the other from 1925. The 1918\nspread is set in scene around a dinner table on a summer afternoon, and shows\noff the very epitome of post-World War I elegance, including a maid rushing to\nthe table with signature Heinz Ketchup. It is printed in bright\nwater-color-esque tones, with ornate floral embellishments. The 1925 advertisement,\nby contrast, is simpler; a clean white background with a single bottle of Heinz\nKetchup centered, loving held, cleanly labeled. While the font is consistent\n(and indeed, consistent today), this bolder color palette and copy betrays the\n1920s sensibilities that put less of an emphasis on family, and more on the\nfood itself, as the increasing migration to cities brought an enthusiasm for\ndining out, and by extension, the perennial Ketchup-topped hamburger, front and\ncenter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

This example is one of countless advertisements in this publication and many more which not only trace the evolution and durability of any number of American products, but also speak to the beauty, stylishness and era-reflecting elegance of the print work itself, through copy and image alike. In this way, the Modernist period can be seen not only as a period of great literary and cultural growth, but aesthetic growth as well, through the beauty of these ads and others, some of which feature logos that still show up in shopping carts and refrigerators the country over, today. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy does this matter?\u201d you might ask.\nWell, if you\u2019ve ever coaxed ketchup from a glass bottle at your own local\ngreasy spoon, you are a part of the American legacy of Heinz. Products and the\nadvertisements that sell them are an undeniable part of American identity, and\nto understand one\u2019s place as part of this heritage is the best way to support\nit, or actively change it, as one sees fit. In other words, knowledge is power,\neven if that knowledge revolves around condiments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was contributed by Nicole Horowitz a graduate student in the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film, who recently completed an internship with curator Anne Bahde. Nicole examined women\u2019s periodicals from the modernist period to look at the intersections between literature and material culture during the era. A venture over to any special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23671"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23689,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23671\/revisions\/23689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}