Advertising in the 60s Movies

[Sam_A.Robrin]

@NitroPress

Mad’s entire metier in the late 1950s and early 1960s was the ad game. Their parody of everything and anything Madison Avenue stands as all-time brilliance.

MAD was also the most widespread influence encouraging people to think critically about advertising. By the end of the 60s, it had done its job very, very well, so that advertising agencies didn’t have the aura of cultural normality with a dash of creativity that they had exemplified earlier.

[drastic_quench]

@Wendell_Wagner

It was more like the late 1950’s through the early 1960’s. There was a common belief that with the proper use of advertising techniques you could make people believe in anything and could sell them anything. Ads before that time mostly look quaint these days. Starting in the late 1940’s there was a lot of research (much of it from university psychology departments) on what really sold things, and advertisements soon got a lot better:

Advertising research - Wikipedia

There is actually more scepticism these days about advertising than there was back in the heyday of the field, as it has become clear that you can’t really make people believe absolutely anything.

@Odesio

Wendell Wagner didn’t claim that advertising wasn’t influential. He pointed out that there was a time period where some were concerned that advertisers could get the public to believe anything. Well, they really can’t. No advertising, no matter how clever, is going to get me to order a Budweiser or a Coors at a bar.

Somebody is buying Head-On in a pharmacy right now. Apply directly to the forehead!

[Yorikke]

@CalMeacham

…and The Organization Man (Mad magazine titled one of its earlier collections The Organization Mad, with a cover that spoofed that of the book.

Wow! I had the opportunity, when I was about 13-14, in the late 80s, to go through many old MAD books and mags that an uncle had stored in our attic. The issues were from the late 60s or early 70s, I want to say. I pondered that fricking title for months, and never figured it out. On the face of it, the words “The Organization Mad” make no goddamn sense without context. I haven’t thought of it in 25 years until now. Thanks!