Advertising In The 1920's Essay

The food and Drug Act passed in 1906, at this time advertising was a rather small enterprise with no federal regulation. The act did not really affect advertising directly only the labeling of products (Stole, 2012. p.3). Even though the law did not partain to the advertising of the product, the makers of patent medicine still had to change their method of advertising. They could not lie in the advertisement, only to be caught when the consumer read the label on the product. Even though there was this risk, there was still a need to have something regulated what advertisers were allowed to do. Eight years later, the Federal Trade Commission Act was established and “provided the FTC with regulatory powers over advertising, but the agency was

p. 3). This still did not protect the consumer from misleading or false advertising. Advertising became a controversial industry and unpopular, even though people were dependent on it for information on their everyday purchases (Stole, 2012. p. 3). When we reach the World War II section we will see where advertising started be regualated by the government even more. Before we get to that we will take a look at how advertising changed in the 1920s. The 1920s, the age of flappers, short dresses, women working outside the home, gang corruption, and speakeasies. This was a time to be alive. Sadly not a lot of the books discussed this time period. However, Advertising the American Dream: Making a Way For Modernity 1920-1940 and Advertising in America: The First 200 Years both mention that it was in this decade, that people began to use sex to sell their products. It was the advertising that was done during the first World War, that had a major effect on how advertising looked in the 1920s (Goodrum and Dalrymple, 1990. p. 35-37). It all started with the advertising of women, “some advertisements clearly conveyed the idea that in presenting the formulaic scene of the women seated before her dressing-table mirror they had captured the essence