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• Looking Back 90 Years for Ad Inspiration

Looking Back 90 Years for Ad Inspiration

written on September 10, 2010 by Nikki Evans

The Sunday Parade magazine’s ClearEars® ad looked astonishingly like ads from the early 1920s.  I would know.  I’ve covered our half-bath walls with over a hundred of them, all from 1923 and 1925 publications.  I love those ads.  So wordy, in a good way.

So, all I could think when I saw the ClearEars ad was, “Wow. Maybe we’re circling back to ads that tell the stories and describe the product or service in ways that really compel readers to want to know more.”

The ClearEars ad begins with the caption, She’s hitting herself in the head because she forgot to buy ClearEars.  The half page ad includes a photo of the product and a whimsical illustration of a swimmer hitting herself in the head.  Three long paragraphs of copy describe how unwise it is to leave water in your ears followed by explaining how hitting yourself in the head is not a good idea and using ClearEars is.

I read every word.  The ClearEars people must believe that readers like me are ready to read a little something more substantial and personal about why it would be a good idea to purchase their product.

Wonders of Milkweed Cream and Grape Nuts

I’ll tell you about a few ads on our bathroom walls and you decide if they would appeal to you.

One of my favorites begins with the caption Your Milkweed Cream helped me help my husband!  Ensuing copy tells the story about how using Ingram’s Milkweed Cream on one woman’s face improved her appearance so dramatically that it not only helped her husband’s social standing but also his standing with his new business associates.  My goodness, he even got a raise, thanks to her using Ingram’s Milkweed Cream.

Another favorite, this for Grape Nuts: Food can tire him out—or keep him fresh and vigorous.  Two paragraphs later, a woman reader would definitely understand the wonders of whole grain in energizing the man in her life, thanks to the bowl of cereal she lovingly put before him each morning.

Campbell’s Soup, Then and Now

I tore a Campbell’s Soup ad from a recent magazine and carried it into the bathroom to compare it with a Campbell’s ad from 90 years ago.

Today’s full page Campbell’s Soup ad has lots of white space, as we’ve come to expect.  Two spoonfuls of chicken soup come in from the top and serve as big eyes.  A curved caption smiles beneath them, “Kids Crave. Moms Rave.”  Hugging the bottom of the page is a photo of two cans of soup and this concise copy:

     Campbell’s® Kids Soups make both kids and moms smile.  They’re a good source of Vitamin A, with no artificial flavors or preservatives.  And the addition of a natural sea salt helps them have a healthy level of sodium.  With plenty of taste kids love, everyone wins!

Not bad, but narrowly focused.  With no kids at home to feed, the ad didn’t move me.  Here’s what’s on the full-page ad to the left of our vanity: 

      The lengthy caption: These four soups are strictly vegetable…for Lent and other meatless meals…for the regular family table any day of the year. 

       Below, to the left, is a hefty paragraph that explains how the…choosing of varied, attractive, wholesome meals for the family is a tax on any woman’s ingenuity [especially when] the meatless diet imposes its restrictions. 

        Photographs of the four different cans of soup run top to bottom on the right, each with its own mouthwatering description: 
        Tomato: …pure sunshine in every spoonful…healthfulness and sheer pleasure for your appetite 
        Celery: …delicacy of flavor, the tonic goodness of selected snow white celery, the finest grown 
        Pea: …you’ll enjoy not only their spring-like savor and aroma, but also their extraordinary nutriment 
        Asparagus: Tender, succulent asparagus…that never fails to charm and satisfy.  Daintily garnished with asparagus tips.

What scrumptious descriptions.  Even if you weren’t the one planning meals in your home, you might have wanted to have one of these Campbell’s soups included.

Compare that ad with the one I saw in a recent local business magazine.  Lots of white space, three simple graphics with one single word on each representing what the firm does, followed below by the company name and some reader-meaningless taglines followed by a URL.  No description of a problem I might be having, no story to help me envision how my problem might be solved, no example of how they’ve solved it for others.  This ad offers me no compelling reason to want to contact the firm.  A far cry from the ads in my bathroom.

Print ads that appeal to readers with descriptive word stories that paint mind pictures of using products or services are the most engaging.  Perhaps now’s a good time to go back a few decades for inspiration.


Copyright © 2010 Nikki Evans, Spotlight Writing