Saturday, July 30, 2005
While perusing...
While looking through my old Model T books, I was captivated by this ad...
Ford aimed the ad at extremely poor folks, without romanticizing their situation. The dirt and disorder of poverty comes through clearly, but it's taken for granted that poor folks want to survive and improve their lot. They want to cling to something trustworthy: the doctor, and by sneaky extension, the Ford. Can you imagine a modern ad selling the Focus to homeless drunks? Modern appeals to the poor are in the hip-hop vein, where the underlying assumption is not improvement but revolution.
Now look at the doctor. Knowing ruefully that he could cure almost nothing [this was three years before penicillin], he nevertheless tried. Would he understand modern doctors who can cure or control almost everything, but who are required to waste most of their time and money on unnecessary tests and paperwork?
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And while I'm in blast-from-the-past mode, consider this Chrysler ad from WW2. How did this make it to publication? It doesn't spend even one syllable on the crucial distinction between the 99.9% of Japanese who were good peaceful people versus the tiny handful of bad apples who obviously did not represent the true ideals of Shinto.
This was typical of all ads, news, and entertainment. And yet, despite this unconscionable lack of cultural understanding and tolerance, we somehow mysteriously managed to win that war. ¶ 9:37 AM
Ford aimed the ad at extremely poor folks, without romanticizing their situation. The dirt and disorder of poverty comes through clearly, but it's taken for granted that poor folks want to survive and improve their lot. They want to cling to something trustworthy: the doctor, and by sneaky extension, the Ford. Can you imagine a modern ad selling the Focus to homeless drunks? Modern appeals to the poor are in the hip-hop vein, where the underlying assumption is not improvement but revolution.
Now look at the doctor. Knowing ruefully that he could cure almost nothing [this was three years before penicillin], he nevertheless tried. Would he understand modern doctors who can cure or control almost everything, but who are required to waste most of their time and money on unnecessary tests and paperwork?
-----
And while I'm in blast-from-the-past mode, consider this Chrysler ad from WW2. How did this make it to publication? It doesn't spend even one syllable on the crucial distinction between the 99.9% of Japanese who were good peaceful people versus the tiny handful of bad apples who obviously did not represent the true ideals of Shinto.
This was typical of all ads, news, and entertainment. And yet, despite this unconscionable lack of cultural understanding and tolerance, we somehow mysteriously managed to win that war. ¶ 9:37 AM
