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Advertising is strongly associated with the United States. It of course did not begin in the United States, but the rollicking free market capitalist economy of the United States brought advertising to a new heught and level of sophistication unknown in other countries. The story of advertising in various countries is a fascinating topic, and one which HBC with its limited resources has not yet been able to address, although it is one of the topics we hope to be able to addrss. A Russian reader has provided us a fascinating account of Soviet advertising. Soviet advertising had a different purpose thannadverising in the West. We have begun to collect individual advertisements displaying children's clothes. Most are American ads, but we are gradually adding advertisements from other countries as well. At this time we have the ads sorted chronolologically. We will eventually sort them by country as well and list them here. This will help in country assessment of the advertising industries in different countries. One interesting country is the history of advertising is Germany. It is fascinating how adverising becme important so soon after World War II. and became a feature in the Cold War. The German Economic Miracle was a potent advertisement for freedom with foirced the Communist to build a horific wall to keep their people in. After only a few years of freedom, the Grmans had not only recovered, but delivering a life style tht Germabs could only dream of before the War.
Advertising is strongly associated with the United States. It of course did not begin in the United States, but the rollicking free market capitalist economy of the United States brought advertising to a new height and level of sophistication unknown in other countries. We see advertising in all periods of American history. American advertisingover time, evolved responding to the changing American economy, new technologies, and a range of cultural developments. Advertising began in the colonial period. Given the Protestnt foundation, there was relatively high level of literacy, actually highrer than in England/Britaun, even before public education. Adverising was both visual and print. The visual advertising was signs outsuide ships, but more important was print adverising. We do not yet have any 17th century ads, but 18th century ads exist. Lithograohy was, however, very basic until the turn-of-the 20th century. Our interest is clothing and fashion. America was, however, an agricultural country. And the first adswere about what Americ produced--tobacco. And until the mid-19th century, clothing was hand made at home or in small shops and fashion was almost entirely based on European styles. Adverising was limited. Producion of cloyhing was small-scale operations which could do very little adverising. Thus we so not see much adverising for clothing until the mid-19th century, mostly in newspapers. The American economy eploded after yhe mid-19th century. And in a few short decades adverising in America exploded with it. And all kinds of adverusung medica appear, mass circulation magazines, movies, radio, tekevusion, and eventuaklly the intenet.
Advertising is strongly connected with capitalism. And it was the English and Dutch that invented capitalism (late-17th century). What might be called advertising existed before millennia long before capitalist, but it the rise of capitalism that that would create the advertising industry. Here we are primarily talking about the 20th county. Before the 20th century, advertising was to say the least amateurish. Of course technology played into this, especially advances in lithography. Being able to provide attractive image of products brought advertising into the big time. Britain is not the largest economy in Europe, it lost that position to Germany around the turn of he 20th century, but it is the but it continues to be the is the largest advertising market in Europe and one of the leading advertising markets worldwide. Thus there are a wealth of British advertisements both selling children's clothing or at least picturing it. Advertising agencies appeared (mid-19th century), but Britain lost out to its international dominance with the rise of the behemoth across the Atlantic. The advertising revolution began in Britain at much the same time as in the United States, its course has been less explosive. Ad British advertising was at first more restrained than in America, especially beginning in the Roaring Twenties. Even so Britain remains the second most important advertising marker worldwide. Given our American location, we do not yet have many examples of British advertising, but hope to expand this section because we have quite a number of British readers.
One interesting country is the history of advertising is Germany. It is fascinating how adverising becme important so soon after World War II. and became a feature in the Cold War. The German Economic Miracle was a potent advertisement for freedom with forced the Communist to build a horific wall to keep their people in. After only a few years of freedom, the Germans had not only recovered, but delivering a life style tht Germabs could only dream of before the War. It is likely that West German radio abnd TV advertising whuich the Wall di nbot block had more to do wuth undermining Communist East Hermany than all the poliltical propaganda. TheEaster Germabns could not buy what they saw abd heard in West German afvertising, but it ertainky wet their appetiute for asystem that offered what the West Germans could buy.
We have very little information about Italian advertising. Ann Italian reader sentbus a full color advertisement for ir the Grandi Magazzini Mele, a department store in Naples. The stire was founded by Emiddio and Alfonso Mele (1889). By thus time department stores wee common throiughout Europe abd North America. The store offered goods for the upper middle class as well as lower income families as well. Here is an advertisement for children's clothing ('abiti e vestine per bambini') dating to the early 20th century. We would guess around 1910. We are not sure just where it appeared. A magazine or catalog would have dated it to the anout 192O, but the dress looks more lkike about 1910. Our Italian readereports that it was a poster which could have been bout 190. We believe that posters like his were more common in Europe than America where mass produced catalogs were a major adverising method. The difference in part was partially due the higher incomes of Anerican consumers. We note posters for events like the circus, but have not encountered American posters like this for the big deprtmenmt stores. The focus of the cpster here is on a fancy new pink dress. Thes uggestioin is that the girls did not go shiopping with mother. The ad also reminds the buying public that toys and women's clothing were lson on offer. It is interesting the contrast between the abundance of garments and toys and the caption: 'massimo buon mercato' (very cheap). The store went bankrupt during the Great Depression (1932).
We know nothing about pre-World War II Japanese advertsing. But with the post-War Japanese Economic Miracle the Japanese enthusiastically took up took up Western consumrism and advertising. But bthere were cultural differences. One study suggests that, "... Japanese ads were evaluated as more emotional and less comparative than American ads. In contrast to a priori notions, Japanese ads were found to contain at least as many information cues as American ads." [Hong, et. al.] Another assessment reported that "Japanese magazine advertisements were generally more informative than U.S. ads, although the emphasis on specific content varies cross-culturally." [Madden, et. al.] . As expected, recent Japanese advertising has increasingly emphasised status to a much greater degree than recent US advertising, and recent US advertising has continued to emphasise personal efficacy to a much greater degree than does Japanese advertising. Both cultures are found to use materialistic themes in their advertisements. Another group of investiagtors found that ". As expected, recent Japanese advertising has increasingly emphasised status to a much greater degree than recent US advertising, and recent US advertising has continued to emphasise personal efficacy to a much greater degree than does Japanese advertising. Both cultures are found to use materialistic themes in their advertisements." [Belk and Pollay] One notable future in Japanese asvertising was 'cuteness', esprcially when children wee involved. A resercher "tells us, With the influence of American animations and cartoons, the years after the Second World War saw the emergence of new cartoon-style cute emblems such as Fujiya's Peko-chan , but the real proliferation of cuteness in Japan's marketing world started only around the mid-seventies, after Sanrio, pioneer in the marketing of cute-ness, had demonstrated the sheer endless sales-power of cute,through the immense commercial success of its "fancygoods" . Throughout most of the seventies and the ighties, cuteness was the main ormative influence on Japanese youth culture,and almost all commodities became available in a redefined and redesigned cute version. But today, as Sharon Kinsella suggests in her account of the kawaii-boom,the glory days of boundless childishness are over. Fashion has shed some ofits frills and bows, teddybear-shapedback packsareen countered less frequently in the streets of Harajuku, and a more insolent tone has entered youth culture: the cute-yet-streetwise image under which today's pop teen queen Amuro amieis being marketed is light-years away from the saccharine overdose of irnmaturity, infantility and irmocence which were the hallmark of Matsuda Seiko,the reigning queen of ten years ago."
A Russian reader has provided us a fascinating account of Soviet advertising. Soviet advertising had a different purpose than adverising in the West. food and consumer goods was in such short supply that Soviet ebterprises did not have to any advertising. Any prouct of any ninterest was quickly snapped up by Soviet consumers. And Soviet idealogues criticized Western consumerism. But there was advertising, basically to promote behaviors the Sovits approved of.
Belk, R. and Pollay. "Materialism abd status appeals in Japanaese and US print adveriusing, "International Marketing Review, Vol. 2, No. 4 (April 1, 1985), pp. 38-47.
Hong, Jae W. Hong , Aydin Muderrisoglu, and George M. Zinkhan. "Cultural differences anddAdvertising expression: A comparative content analysis of Japanese and U.S. magazine ddvertising," Journal of Advertising Vol. 16, No. (1987).
Madden, Charles S., Marjorie J. Caballero, and Shinya Matsukubo. "Japanese magazine advertising," Journal of Advertising Vol. 15, Issue 3 (1986). pp. 38-45.
Riessland, Andreas. "Sweet spots: The use of cuteness in Japanese advertising," Japanstudien Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 129-54.
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