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Natasha Fernando

VA 0400

Design and

Communication

14th

May 2013

How advertising reflects the changing tastes.

Advertising, the process of driving consumer behavior reflect changing tastes. Derived from the

Latin term "ad vertere: which means "to turn the mind toward", advertising is necessarily a

form of communication where the advertiser tries to communicate with an audience in order to

encourage, persuade or sometimes manipulate the audience to start using or to continue to

use the product, idea or service advertised. Simply it's a process of driving consumer behavior,

usually in a persuasive manner. Though many different mediums had been invented, used and

will be used in advertising, at its core, to be persuasive, an advert need to be appealing to the

audience. By nature, people will something appealing only if it is in accordance with their sense

of taste. Taste is subjective and could be depended on context. Thus, taste is always

provisional. However, as good taste is aspirational, it is justifiable to say that taste is a social

indicator against which we judge similarity and difference in ourselves. According to renowned

sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, taste is a display of Cultural, economical and social capital. Thus, it

is always employed to distinguish between things, which is the very reason it affects advertising

in a truly unique way. To get a succinct view on how advertising reflect changing tastes, two

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advertisements will be compared, both advertising the same product, Coca Cola, in America but

in different time periods as an example. (Image 1.1 and 1.2)

1960s was a period of change, to the world but more so to the Americans due to the numerous

societal and political movements which took place, the war in Vietnam and sexual revolution

being the predominating events. Though weighed down by war, 1960s was a period of

economic prosperity as the disposable income and leisure time of the Americans peaked. Thus,

an economic boom was created in 1960s. In this period of profound social change, there were

drastic changes in sexual attitudes and practices. As a result of the struggle for gender equality,

women got more freedom and were recognized by advertisers not only as a sexual element to

be displayed in adverts, but also as a target market. The 1960s were the advertisings coming

of age. It reflected a trend toward innovation and sophistication.

The advertisement from 1960s illustrate two woman under hooded hair dryers, in a salon

setting, judged by their attire, holding two bottles of coke with the text underneath reading

Heats on? Time for the unmistakable taste of ice cold coca cola. Lifts your spirits, boosts your

energy and with the brand new Coca Cola slogan for the 60s Things go better with Coke .

Every tiny detail in this advertisement reflect the taste of the general public in 1960s. There

was a rise in fashion trends, specially hair trends in the 60s with the arrival of the perfectly

groomed first lady, Jackie Kennedy and as always, movie stars influenced the fashion trends

with Brigitte Bardot rising to international stardom being arguably the biggest star of the 60s.

Therefore, the hair hood dryers, and the fringed hair style a symbol of popular fashion made its

way into the advertisement in order to accommodate the public taste. The women, serving

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both the purposes, being a sex element and targeting the emerging female audience would

have been the most logical choice for delivering the message across. As there were many crisis

situations in this era, the vaguely phrased things in the slogan allowed the viewer to identify

Coke with whatever they want. Which was sufficient to cater to any taste. The very layout of

the advertisement reflect the popular taste of the era. With the popularity of the TV, people

looked for less text and more visuals even in print, therefore these types of advertisements

featuring large visuals and minimal copy, were appealing to the general audience.

1970s in terms of economy, perhaps is the worst decade in most industrialized countries since

the Great depression. Yet the advertising industry showed a rapid growth. An average

consumer in 1970s was exposed to 1600 advertisements per day. It was found out that out of

the 1600 ads, only fewer than 80 was consciously noticed and that fewer than 12 provoked

reaction. Thus in the 70s advertising was all about making the advertisement as much

appealing as possible in order to position the ad in the audiences minds. 70s saw a growth in

the Hippie movement as well as other subcultures such as Punk. Growing feminism lead to

women expanding their involvement in politics and being an equally important target audience.

The African Americans too made their presence felt as the number of black congress members

increased creating another target audience. In terms of fashion, it was all about being bold,

colorful and free as this was an era that looked to the past for fashion inspiration. Bell bottoms,

afro haircuts, sideburns and beards for men, platform shoes and leisure suits was considered in

trend.

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The advertisement of 1970s highlights the product more than the people consuming it, in

order to position the product and brand in peoples minds. Also, women are no longer used as

a sex symbol but is being illustrated as an audience. Specially the youth are used and aimed at

in the advertisements as youth was becoming more and more heard and noticeable because of

subcultures and movements. Freedom of self-expression . Specific advertisements (Image 2.2)

were created for the African American audience highlighting their tastes in fashion and hair.

Also the sense of sharing was highlighted by using a group of people sharing Coke as imagery

as, togetherness was in trend and appealing with the growth of subcultures and movements.

The advertisements from 1970s therefore clearly reflect the changing tastes.

Though advertising was and is castigated for its tendency to drive consumer behavior by

showing exaggerated and often deceitful practices, it keeps changing and reshaping itself with

time, audience, culture, economy and society, in order to reflect changing tastes. Because by

nature, advertising reflects changing tastes.

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Coca cola advertisement from 1960s

Image 1.1

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The Coca Cola advertisement from 1970s.

Image 2.1

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Coca cola Advertisement (1970s)

Image 2.2