Ads Playing Upon People's Insecurities are Unethical

In the early twentieth century advertisements had just begun to capture the imagination and attention of early consumers. One of the key tactics used during this time period was to pull the stresses and social limitations felt by consumers into the ads they viewed. Advertisers knew that consumers would place themselves inside of the ad and actually feel as though the ad is speaking directly to them if they showed a culturally perceived conception of the “ideal life.” They chose to focus on elements of wealth, style, gender, appearance, and the new technological advances of the modern life, by incorporating these idealized views into their ads with their products. In this paper, I will argue advertisers took full advantage of consumers by playing upon their fears and daily life stresses when it came to issues of class, appearance, gender, and the unknown and fast paced lifestyle of the modern world.

People in the early twentieth century were not just working as a way of sustaining life. Gone were the times where people worked to just place food on the table, and clothes on their families’ backs. Now, men were working hard to be able to purchase items that showed how much they were worth. A spoon was no longer just a spoon. It needed to have the appeal of elegance and wealth, so when your guests sat down for a dinner party or Sunday meal they knew that you had really made it in the world by just the simple look of that lavish dinner spoon. Ads played upon consumers fears of others thinking they were “low class” by highlighting their products as indicators of wealth. According to advertisers, “consumers were voting in the marketplace every day for style, beauty, “extravagance,” and the installment pl...

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...d the uncertainty over this new lifestyle. Ads acted as special confidantes, letting them in on secrets about what defined a person, or gently told someone if they had an odor or were cleaning their kitchen incorrectly. Advertisements took advantage of people in the early twentieth century by continuously bringing these insecurities to the forefront of their campaigns. They never really wanted to “cure” these ailments or help with consumers’ fears and stresses; instead they wanted people to feel them everyday so people would need the product and the advertiser as much as the advertiser needed the consumer.

Works Cited

Baker, Jody. "Re: Hegemony." Audio Blog comment. Media and Consumer Culture 1126. 16 Feb. 2010. Web.

Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940. Berkeley: University of California, 1986. Print.