This was Thursday: 1968 Compare and Contrast

boy trap

adding fuel to now’s fire and no doubt making betty friedan’s hair stand on end
1968 Wonder bread ad

The boys on Madison Avenue were having a field day in 1968: not only were social mores changing and a whole new demographic of consumer coming up through the ranks but the field of advertising itself was quickly learning to capitalize on the trends. Women’s liberation was in its infancy despite how many of the gender felt but stereotypes in the media were still commonplace – in a paradox of epic proportions one can almost hear mothers across the nation calling out to their daughters to take some sandwiches along to the protest  – ” Be brave, stay away from the police and make sure Bobby gets one of those ham ‘n’cheese!” Promoting old products in a modern light was, to make a bad pun, the bread and butter of the business but one couldn’t help but wonder the manner in which some of the agencies ‘borrowed” wholesale from the earlier success of groundbreakers in the fields of music and art.

1968 his ad

cool guys in charge in slacks their wives and mothers bought
1968 h.i.s. AD

Industry could hear the sound of cash flowing into their coffers with the right campaign – someone in the PR department of Campbell’s did and took back the can Andy Warhol had made iconic with its very own beach-bag mail-in offer. Now everyone could own a piece of pop art or look like the latest pop star all the girls were giddy over.

Not much has changed, except for the legal concept of Intellectual Property

Read more about 1968:

NOW
Wonder Bread
1968
1968 JukeBox

4 thoughts on “This was Thursday: 1968 Compare and Contrast

  1. Caddo Veil says:

    The slacks ad triggered a memory of one of my fave male model ads–“The Arrow Shirt” men. Somewhere between 1970-72–if you can find one of those, I’d be truly thrilled!

    Like

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